Fortnight in pictures: (December 1 – December22)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the announcement that the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade on  December 16. The US central bank's policy-setting committee raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, ending a lengthy debate about whether the economy was strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs