Federal Reserve officials, amid signs that the economy soon could shed its long period of stagnation, approved the first interest rate hike in just about a year Wednesday and indicated a modestly more aggressive path ahead. The Federal Open Market Committee raised its target range from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent. The overnight funds rate currently sits at 0.41 percent. The committee also approved a quarter-point increase in the discount, or primary credit, rate, from 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
