The answer: 2:00 pm New York, 18:00 GMT, 23:30 IST
| Wednesday 28 October 2026 | |
|---|---|
| FOMC statement | 2:00 pm ET (EDT) · 18:00 GMT · 23:30 IST |
| Press conference | 2:30 pm ET · 18:30 GMT · 00:00 IST (Thu) |
| Dot plot / projections | None at this meeting (next: 9 December) |
| Current target range | 3.75–4.00% (raised on 16 September 2026) |
The Federal Reserve releases its policy statement at 2:00 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference starts at 2:30 pm. For XAUUSD traders that means two volatility windows thirty minutes apart, and in Asia both land in the small hours of Thursday.
The meeting does not include a Summary of Economic Projections. On the Federal Reserve’s FOMC calendar, only the March, June, September and December meetings carry the asterisk that marks projections, and October 2026 has none. So tonight there is no new dot plot: every clue about the next step has to come from the statement’s wording and the Chair’s answers.
Fed decision time in your time zone
All times below are for the statement and the press conference on 28 October 2026, converted from 18:00 UTC with the time zone database and checked against each zone’s current offset. Cities east of India move into Thursday 29 October.
| City / zone | Local time zone (offset) | Statement | Press conference |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | EDT (UTC−4) | Wed 14:00 | Wed 14:30 |
| Toronto | EDT (UTC−4) | Wed 14:00 | Wed 14:30 |
| Chicago | CDT (UTC−5) | Wed 13:00 | Wed 13:30 |
| Mexico City | CST (UTC−6) | Wed 12:00 | Wed 12:30 |
| Los Angeles | PDT (UTC−7) | Wed 11:00 | Wed 11:30 |
| São Paulo | BRT (UTC−3) | Wed 15:00 | Wed 15:30 |
| London / GMT | GMT (UTC+0) | Wed 18:00 | Wed 18:30 |
| Lagos | WAT (UTC+1) | Wed 19:00 | Wed 19:30 |
| Berlin / Paris | CET (UTC+1) | Wed 19:00 | Wed 19:30 |
| Johannesburg | SAST (UTC+2) | Wed 20:00 | Wed 20:30 |
| Nairobi | EAT (UTC+3) | Wed 21:00 | Wed 21:30 |
| Riyadh / Istanbul | UTC+3 | Wed 21:00 | Wed 21:30 |
| Dubai | GST (UTC+4) | Wed 22:00 | Wed 22:30 |
| India (IST) / Colombo | UTC+5:30 | Wed 23:30 | Thu 00:00 |
| Kathmandu | UTC+5:45 | Wed 23:45 | Thu 00:15 |
| Dhaka | UTC+6 | Thu 00:00 | Thu 00:30 |
| Jakarta / Bangkok | WIB (UTC+7) | Thu 01:00 | Thu 01:30 |
| Singapore | SGT (UTC+8) | Thu 02:00 | Thu 02:30 |
| Kuala Lumpur | MYT (UTC+8) | Thu 02:00 | Thu 02:30 |
| Hong Kong / Shanghai / Manila | UTC+8 | Thu 02:00 | Thu 02:30 |
| Tokyo / Seoul | JST (UTC+9) | Thu 03:00 | Thu 03:30 |
| Sydney | AEDT (UTC+11) | Thu 05:00 | Thu 05:30 |
| Auckland | NZDT (UTC+13) | Thu 07:00 | Thu 07:30 |
If your city is not listed, the gold market hours tool converts sessions to your own clock, and the gold market events hub shows every scheduled release in your local time.
Why this week’s times look different
Three clock changes overlap this week, and they catch people out:
- The UK and the EU left summer time on Sunday 25 October. London is on GMT and Berlin on CET.
- The US stays on daylight time until Sunday 1 November. New York is still on EDT (UTC−4).
- Sydney moved to summer time (AEDT) on 4 October.
The result is that for this one week London is only four hours ahead of New York, so the Fed lands at 18:00 in London rather than the usual 19:00, and at 19:00 in Berlin rather than 20:00. India does not change its clocks, so the IST time (23:30) is the same as at the summer meetings. The daylight-saving shift entry in our glossary explains how this affects gold sessions more generally.
Where the decision falls in the gold trading day
The release time decides how much liquidity is around when the news hits, and that matters for spreads and fills.
| Region | Session when the statement lands | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Americas | New York afternoon, COMEX floor session still open | Deepest liquidity of the three regions |
| Europe and Africa | Evening, after the London close | London desks are thinning out; New York carries the move |
| Middle East and India | Late night | Many retail traders are watching live; fewer local institutions |
| East Asia and Australia | Early hours of Thursday | Most people see the result on waking; the next Asian session digests it |
For traders in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, the practical decision is usually whether to stay up or to plan around the Asian open that follows. Our guide to XAUUSD market open times in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia covers those sessions, and the best time to trade gold in IST covers the late-night window in India.
What happens to XAUUSD, minute by minute
The timeline below uses GMT, IST and New York time. It describes mechanics that repeat often enough to plan around. It is not a forecast of direction, and any Fed day can break the pattern. For a full written plan with checklists, use the FOMC day gold playbook; this section is the clock.
| GMT | IST | New York | Stage | What XAUUSD typically does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00–17:00 | 17:30–22:30 | 08:00–13:00 | The wait | Ranges often narrow as traders cut positions; breakouts frequently fail |
| 17:00–17:45 | 22:30–23:15 | 13:00–13:45 | Final hour | Liquidity thins further; some traders close or reduce |
| 17:45–18:00 | 23:15–23:30 | 13:45–14:00 | Pre-release | Spreads widen as liquidity providers pull quotes |
| 18:00 | 23:30 | 14:00 | Statement | Headline hits; the first move is fast and can skip price levels |
| 18:00–18:30 | 23:30–00:00 | 14:00–14:30 | Reading the statement | Markets compare the wording with the last statement; price can reverse as details are digested |
| 18:30 | 00:00 | 14:30 | Press conference begins | Opening remarks, then questions |
| 18:30–19:30 | 00:00–01:00 | 14:30–15:30 | Q&A | The second move: answers on future hikes can confirm or undo the first move |
| 19:30–21:00 | 01:00–02:30 | 15:30–17:00 | Settling | Spreads normalise; the post-Fed direction starts to form |
| Asia, Thursday | Thursday morning | Overnight | Next session | The move either extends or retraces as Asia and then London react |
Before the statement: spreads widen
In the last few minutes before 2:00 pm New York, liquidity providers widen their quotes because nobody wants to be caught on the wrong side of the headline. Your platform’s bid-ask spread on XAUUSD can be several times its usual size for a short time. A stop placed close to price can be triggered by the spread alone, and pending orders can fill well away from their level. The glossary entry on slippage explains why.
2:00 pm: the first move
The first move reflects how the statement compares with what was priced. With a hold close to fully priced tonight, the decision itself is unlikely to surprise; the wording is where the information is. The things traders scan for include any change in how the committee describes inflation, whether the statement keeps a bias towards further firming, and how the vote splits. Our guide to what tonight could signal about a December hike lists the phrases and the if/then paths in detail.
This first spike is the classic news spike: fast, thinly traded and often partly reversed.
2:30 pm: the press conference and the second move
Without a dot plot tonight, the press conference carries extra weight. The Chair’s answers about the December meeting, oil-driven inflation and how much further rates may need to rise can move gold more than the statement did. It is common for the 2:00 pm move and the 3:00 pm move to point in different directions.
How big has the Fed-day range been?
Our history of how gold moved after the last 14 Fed decisions uses COMEX gold futures daily data. On those decision days, gold’s daily high-low range was a median of 1.12 times its 20-day average range before the meeting, and it was larger than that average on 8 of the 14 days. That is a small sample and says nothing about direction, but it is a useful reminder that a stop sized for a normal day may be too tight on a Fed day. The position size calculator helps you size from a wider stop, and the gold volatility page shows how far gold moves in a normal hour.
Fed days bring some of the widest spreads and fastest moves of the month. Prices can gap through stop orders, and a well-planned trade can still lose. Nothing on this page is a trade recommendation.
The next morning: Thursday’s data
The Fed is not the only event this week. On Thursday 29 October the US releases the advance estimate of Q3 GDP and September PCE inflation, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, at 8:30 am New York time, which is 12:30 GMT and 18:00 IST. The ECB decision follows at 13:15 GMT (18:45 IST). A PCE surprise can extend or reverse whatever gold did after the Fed. Read gold and PCE inflation for how that release moves XAUUSD.
The next Fed date in 2026
The final decision of 2026 is on Wednesday 9 December, after the 8–9 December meeting. It does include the Summary of Economic Projections and the dot plot. By then the US will be back on standard time, so the GMT and IST times move one hour later than tonight:
| Zone | Statement, 9 December 2026 |
|---|---|
| New York | Wed 14:00 (EST) |
| London / GMT | Wed 19:00 |
| Dubai | Wed 23:00 |
| India (IST) | Thu 10 Dec, 00:30 |
| Singapore / Kuala Lumpur / Hong Kong | Thu 10 Dec, 03:00 |
| Sydney | Thu 10 Dec, 06:00 |
The Fed’s calendar lists the first 2027 meetings as 26–27 January and 16–17 March, the March meeting with projections. Our economic calendar for gold traders lists every 2027 date with times.
Before you go to bed (or set the alarm)
- Check the time twice. Use the table above, then confirm on the Fed’s calendar on the day.
- Know your levels before 18:00 GMT. The XAUUSD analysis page updates the daily pivots and average range every hour, and our 28 October preview sets out the weekly map.
- Decide in advance. Flat, smaller size, or wait until the press conference ends: pick one and write it down.
- Watch yields and the dollar, not just the candle. The real yields and dollar tracker shows whether the bond and currency markets agree with gold’s move.
- Read the reaction afterwards. Why is gold moving today and the XAUUSD news hub explain what happened in plain words.
Trade the Fed together
Fed night is easier with company, especially when it falls at midnight in India or 2:00 am in Singapore. Inside the XAUUSD Global community, members post their plan for the decision before the statement, follow the release and the press conference together in real time, and review the reaction afterwards on screenshots. No signals: everyone brings their own plan and reasoning. Your first month is free, then $19.99 a month, cancel any time. Join the community and trade tonight’s decision with us.
Sources
- Federal Reserve: FOMC meeting calendars, statements and minutes (meeting dates and which meetings include projections)
- Federal Reserve: FOMC statement, 16 September 2026 (target range of 3.75–4.00%)
- CBS News: Federal Reserve to announce its latest interest rate move this week (2:00 pm ET announcement time)
- Time zone conversions: IANA time zone database (Python
zoneinfo), checked for each zone’s offset on 28 October and 9 December 2026 - Fed-day range figures: our own calculation from COMEX gold futures (GC=F) daily data via Yahoo Finance, explained in how gold moved after the last Fed decisions
Educational content only, not financial advice. Trading gold with leverage carries a high risk of loss.
Frequently asked questions
What time is the Fed decision today?
The FOMC statement is released on Wednesday 28 October 2026 at 2:00 pm Eastern Time (EDT), which is 18:00 GMT, 18:00 in London, 19:00 in Berlin, 22:00 in Dubai and 23:30 in India. In Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur it is 02:00 on Thursday 29 October. The press conference starts 30 minutes after the statement.
What time is Powell's or the Fed Chair's press conference today?
The Fed Chair’s press conference starts at 2:30 pm New York time, which is 18:30 GMT and 00:00 (midnight) in India, moving into Thursday 29 October. The Chair is currently Kevin Warsh. Press conferences usually run for about an hour, so the second wave of gold volatility can last until around 19:30 GMT.
Is there a dot plot at the October 2026 Fed meeting?
No. The Federal Reserve’s calendar does not mark the 27–28 October 2026 meeting with a Summary of Economic Projections. The next dot plot is scheduled with the 8–9 December 2026 decision. Projections come four times a year, at the March, June, September and December meetings.
Why is the Fed decision at 18:00 in London and not 19:00?
The UK left summer time on Sunday 25 October, but the US does not change its clocks until Sunday 1 November. For this one week London is four hours ahead of New York instead of five, so the 2:00 pm New York release lands at 18:00 in London. From the December meeting it is back to 19:00 GMT.
When is the next Fed meeting after October 2026?
The next decision is on Wednesday 9 December 2026 at 2:00 pm New York time. Because the US will be on standard time by then, that is 19:00 GMT and 00:30 IST on Thursday 10 December. It includes new economic projections and the dot plot. The first 2027 meeting is scheduled for 26–27 January.
Should I trade gold at the exact time of the Fed announcement?
Many traders choose not to. Spreads usually widen in the minutes around the statement, price can jump past stop orders, and the first move often changes direction once the press conference starts. If you do trade, decide your size and stop before the release and size from the stop with a position size calculator.