The markets are still grappling with the idea of a December rate hike.

And well they should. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday gave its strongest signal yet that a rate hike is likely next month, according to minutes of the central bank's October meeting.

The markets have been dreading the end of near-zero interest rates. But once the Band-Aid is ripped off, Wall Street might not give much of a damn anymore.

Some analysts argue that any of the Fed's moves next year won't rock stocks as much as lessen recent anxiety.

"We do not expect the early stages of the Fed hiking cycle to disrupt global interest rate or equity markets," saya Ajay Rajadhyaksha, head of macro research at Barclays  (BCS) - Get Report.

In fact, the gradual pace of tightening the Fed is likely to implement could actually benefit equities, according to Federated Investors associate portfolio manager Steve Chiavarone.

"It's more akin to what happened around taper," Chiavarone told TheStreet. "It was a lot of handwringing at the beginning of tapering. Then once tapering occurred, more people got comfortable that this was not in fact the end of the world and that it was a sign that the economy was strong enough to stand on its own."

Consensus is clear that if the Fed hikes in December, it likely won't be "one and done." Several Wall Street firms are already forecasting more rate hikes next year.

"The coming year is likely to prove to be a watershed in global economic history, as the [Fed] begins the process of normalizing US interest rates, after seven years of historically unprecedented accommodation," Credit Suisse (CS) - Get Report global head research analyst Ric Deverell wrote in a 2016 outlook report.

A move off of crises-level rates appears justified. After all, the labor market continues to be a shining star with 61 straight months of job growth and claims for unemployment benefits at 15-year lows. And inflation, while not yet at the Fed's 2% target rate, shows signs of moving north in coming months.

What's more, the Fed doesn't just want to raise rates -- it needs to steer the economy in case of any unforeseen bumps.

"While the Fed wants to tighten financial conditions sufficiently to avoid an overheating economy, they also would like to be able to maneuver the Fed funds rate as far away from the zero lower bound as possible," Deutsche Bank (DB) - Get Report analysts wrote in their global outlook report. "Doing so will provide them with ammunition to combat future downturns using traditional monetary policy tools."

The question of how frequently the Fed hikes rates is still in contention. Deutsche Bank analysts predict the Fed won't make its rate liftoff move until March at the earliest with another incremental move higher in June.

Credit Suisse, on the other hand, anticipates the Fed will hike rates four times by the end of 2016. Chiavarone is in the same camp, arguing that the Fed will implement a quarter-basis-point increase at every other meeting until they get to around 1%.

And, while the markets have tunnel vision on December, he argues that it's less important when the central bank makes its move, but rather when it finishes.

"Where they start is less important than when they finish," Chiavarone says. "When we look at the dot plots, they kind of tell you where they see the long-term Feds funds rate going. That number is 3.5% on average -- that's low by historical standards.

Markets are currently pricing in a 70% chance that the central bank will hike interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade this December, according to Feds funds futures. The likelihood moved sharply higher earlier in the month after a far-better-than-expected jobs number supported the case that the U.S. economy is improving at a healthy clip.