In the quiet hours after a pivotal Federal Reserve decision, markets paused to reckon with what had just occurred — a rate hike that, paradoxically, brought relief rather than dread. On Thursday, investors read the central bank's move not as a tightening of the noose but as a signal of institutional confidence, and stocks rose accordingly, led by technology and accompanied by falling oil prices and rallying bonds. By Friday morning, that surge had softened into stillness, the kind of stillness that precedes deeper reflection, as markets began the slower work of understanding what higher borrow