What happens on FOMC day?

The Federal Open Market Committee — the FOMC — is the body inside the Federal Reserve that sets US interest rate policy. It meets eight times a year on a published schedule, and the second day of each meeting is what markets call "FOMC day". The rhythm of that day is remarkably consistent.

The timeline (US Eastern Time)

• 2:00 PM — the statement. A few hundred words announcing the rate decision and describing how the committee sees the economy. Markets parse it against the previous statement almost word by word; a changed phrase about inflation or growth is treated as signal.
• 2:00 PM (quarterly meetings) — the projections. Four times a year the statement arrives with the Summary of Economic Projections, including the "dot plot" — each official's view of where rates should sit in coming years. Shifts in the dots often move markets more than the decision itself.
• 2:30 PM — the press conference. The Chair reads prepared remarks and takes questions for roughly an hour. Answers here regularly extend, soften or sharpen the statement's message.
• Three weeks later — the minutes. A fuller account of the meeting's debate, which can itself become a market event if it reveals more disagreement than the statement implied.

Why markets often move twice

A common FOMC-day pattern is an initial move at 2:00 PM on the statement, followed by a second — sometimes opposite — move during the press conference. The statement is a negotiated committee document; the press conference is a person answering unscripted questions. When the two strike different tones, the afternoon can reverse. This is why our coverage treats "the market's FOMC reaction" as unfinished until the press conference ends, and why we describe any link between the event and the move with an explicit confidence label rather than a flat "because".

What to watch beyond the decision

• The vote count — dissents are rare and closely read.
• Changes in the statement's inflation and growth language versus last meeting.
• The dots' median versus where market pricing sat before the meeting.
• Balance-sheet policy remarks, which affect liquidity beyond the headline rate.

FOMC dates come to our calendar from the Federal Reserve's own published schedule, and decision-day coverage in the morning brief is generated after the session closes — with the statement, the presser and the observed reaction in one place. Volatility may be elevated around the scheduled release; that is an observation about event risk, not a forecast of direction.