The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that history suggests stocks are poised for weakness as the U.S. Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates, but investors trying to gauge the ultimate market fallout are focused on how aggressively the central bank hikes. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that in an effort to cool persistently high inflation, the Fed last week increased its benchmark rate for the first time since 2023. The U.S. central bank signalled it expects to follow the quarter-percentage-point hike with another increase by the end of the year. Investors are factoring in more hikes in 2027. "Our bottom line is [whether] the Fed's actions have an impact on the market's expectations for either economic growth or corporate profit growth," said David Lefkowitz, head of U.S. equities at UBS Global Wealth Management. "We don't think the Fed has to hike that much. This is where the debate I think is going to be for the market: How much does the Fed have to hike?" The benchmark S&P 500 has gained more than 12 per cent so far this year. Robust corporate profits have outweighed risks including spiking oil prices amid the Middle East conflict, rising bond yields and the hawkish turn by the Fed.