Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, signaled on Wednesday that the central bank could slow its rapid pace of interest rate increases at its December meeting while making clear that borrowing costs have farther to climb as policymakers remain concerned about a sustained bout of inflation.Investors cheered his comments, with stocks surging at the mere hint that the Fed’s supersize rate increases could soon taper off even as Mr. Powell underlined that he and his colleagues were focused on raising rates high enough to tame inflation, rather than on how fast they got there.The S&P 500 climbed more than 3 percent, the index’s best day in over two weeks. The Nasdaq composite index, which is particularly sensitive to changing views on interest rates, rose 4.4 percent.The …
