The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate Wednesday in a vote of confidence in the U.S. economy's durability while signaling that it plans to continue a gradual approach to rate hikes for 2018 under its new chairman, Jerome Powell.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Seth Freeman, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at EM Capital Management shared his views and outlook on the same.

"The policy was a little more than just basically optimistic and it seems quite honest in terms of talking about the way in which our unemployment rate is way down", he said.

Freeman expected that there will be two more rate hikes this year.

"This is the sixth increase. Although the increase is baked in, overtime the cumulative effect could be very tough on mortgage rates, for consumers and overall corporate growth", said Freeman.

On equity markets, he said that it is interesting that there is more volatility and more activity.

First Published:Mar 22, 2018 3:59 AM IST