Glossary
FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee)
The Federal Reserve committee that sets US monetary policy, including the target range for the federal funds rate. It holds eight scheduled meetings a year.
The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) is the Federal Reserve's policy committee. It has twelve members: the seven members of the Board of Governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and four of the other eleven Reserve Bank presidents. It holds eight regularly scheduled meetings a year and sets the target range for the federal funds rate.
Example
The 2026 calendar includes a meeting on 15–16 September, with the policy statement released on 16 September at 14:00 New York time. A change of a quarter of a percentage point in the target range is a move of 25 bp. If gold trades at 4,000.0 just before the statement and at 4,024.0 half an hour later, it has moved 24 ÷ 4,000 = 0.6%, or 60 bp.
Why it matters
Gold, US indices and the dollar often move sharply in the minutes after the statement, and spreads widen. In our lab, FOMC decisions were one of three event types, with CPI and NFP, after which gold's direction in the first 30 minutes tended to continue.