The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that U.S. stocks slumped on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve held key interest rates unchanged as widely expected, and revised economic projections higher with warnings that the battle against inflation was far from over. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Toronto ended nearly unchanged, but both U.S. and Canadian bond yields rose sharply. U.S. two-year yields reached 5.152 per cent, the highest since 2006, and the Canadian two-year bond yield rose more than 10 basis points to above 5 per cent, its highest since 2001. The Canadian five-year bond yield climbed to 16-year highs for the second day in a row. As they did in June, Fed policy makers at the median still see the central bank's benchmark overnight interest rate peaking this year in the 5.5-to 5.75-per-cent range, just a quarter of a percentage point above the current range. From there the Fed's updated quarterly projections show rates falling only half a percentage point in 2024 compared with the full percentage point of cuts anticipated at the meeting in June. Credit markets now suggest almost a 50-per-cent chance the Bank of Canada will increase interest rates again at its next meeting in October.