By Sinéad Carew, Devik Jain and Bansari Mayur Kamdar (Reuters) – The S&P 500 pared its gains and the Dow briefly dipped into the red on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates and signaled more hikes to fight inflation, putting an end to its easy pandemic-era monetary policy. The U.S. Central bank announced a quarter-percentage-point increase in its benchmark overnight rate and projected its policy rate would hit a range between 1.75% and 2% by year’s end in a stance that will push borrowing costs to restrictive levels in 2023. While the U.S. central bank flagged the mas…