Next Fed meeting — FOMC dates & countdown

What is the FOMC?

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is the part of the US Federal Reserve that sets the federal funds rate — the overnight interest rate banks charge each other, and the anchor for almost every other interest rate in the US economy. It has twelve voting members: the seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the president of the New York Fed, and four of the other eleven regional Fed presidents on a rotating basis.

The committee holds eight scheduled meetings a year, each lasting two days. At the end of the second day it publishes a policy statement with its rate decision, and the Fed Chair holds a press conference. Four of the eight meetings — March, June, September and December — also come with the Summary of Economic Projections, including the "dot plot" showing where each official expects rates to go. Those meetings are marked SEP in the schedule above and usually move markets the most.

The FOMC can also meet unscheduled in a crisis, as it did in March 2020. Those emergency meetings are never on any calendar in advance.

What time is the Fed decision — and what time is that for you?

The policy statement is released at 2:00 PM Eastern Time on the second day of the meeting, and the Chair's press conference starts at 2:30 PM ET. That is 18:00 or 19:00 UTC depending on US daylight saving time — late evening in Europe and the middle of the night in Asia.

• New York: 2:00 PM (press conference 2:30 PM)
• London: 7:00 PM
• Central Europe: 8:00 PM
• Singapore / Hong Kong: 2:00–3:00 AM the next day
• Sydney: 5:00–6:00 AM the next day

Meeting minutes follow three weeks after each decision, at 2:00 PM ET. They are a separate release and can move markets on their own when they reveal how divided the committee was. The countdown at the top converts the decision time to your clock automatically.

Each date is officially tentative until confirmed at the meeting before it, which is the Fed's own wording — in practice the published schedule almost never changes.

Why Fed decisions move every market

The federal funds rate sets the return on holding US dollars. When the Fed raises rates — or signals it will — dollar assets pay more, so the US dollar usually strengthens and gold, which pays no interest, tends to weaken. Cuts work the other way. Because the dollar is on one side of most forex trades, an FOMC decision moves EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and every other USD pair at the same moment.

The decision itself is rarely the surprise: futures markets price the probability of each outcome for weeks beforehand, and the Fed tries hard not to shock them. What moves price is the guidance — the wording of the statement, the dot plot, and the Chair's answers in the press conference. A "hawkish hold" (no change, but hints of tighter policy ahead) can lift the dollar as much as a hike.

Stock indices react through the cost of money: an unexpectedly hawkish Fed tends to pressure the Nasdaq 100 in particular, because growth stocks are valued on earnings far in the future.

How traders handle FOMC day

FOMC days typically come in two waves. The first hits at 2:00 PM ET when the statement is published; the second starts at 2:30 PM ET when the press conference begins, and it often reverses the first as the Chair adds nuance. Many traders treat the whole hour as one event.

• Flat before 2:00 PM: the safest approach — spreads widen and liquidity drops in the minutes before the release.
• Wait for the press conference: trade the direction that survives the Chair's answers rather than the first spike.
• Watch the dot plot: at SEP meetings, compare the median dot with what futures were pricing; the gap often matters more than the decision.
• Mind the overnight risk: in Asian time zones the decision lands while you sleep — size positions so a gap does not break your risk rules.

For a deeper look at how rate decisions translate into currency moves, read FOMC and forex: how central bank decisions move currencies.

Between meetings: minutes, speeches and the blackout period

The decision is one day, but Fed policy moves markets all the time in between. Three weeks after each meeting the minutes are published at 2:00 PM ET, showing how many officials wanted to move faster or slower. In the weeks between, Fed governors and regional presidents give speeches and interviews almost daily, and markets read every word for hints about the next meeting.

That stops during the blackout period: from the second Saturday before each meeting until the day after it ends, officials do not comment on policy. So the last speeches before a meeting carry extra weight, and the quiet days just before a decision are often driven by data instead — especially CPI and the jobs report.

The data that matters most for the next decision usually lands in the fortnight before it: the employment report on a Friday and CPI the following week. Their own countdowns are on the NFP and CPI pages.

Backtest FOMC days before the next one

Eight meetings a year means eight chances a year to practise in real time. FxBacktest gives you every past meeting at once: replay the chart bar by bar through previous FOMC decisions, with the calendar marker on the chart, and test whether your plan — flat into the release, trade the press-conference move, or fade the first spike — actually made money after spread and commission. Ten past meetings take an afternoon instead of fifteen months.