FOMC Minutes Time Today (18 Nov 2026): Time Zones, What to Read and Gold's Past Moves

The answer: 2:00 pm New York, 19:00 GMT, 00:30 IST Thursday

The Federal Reserve publishes the minutes of its 27–28 October meeting at 2:00 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday 18 November 2026. New York has been on standard time (UTC−5) since 1 November, so that is 19:00 GMT. In India it is 00:30 IST on Thursday 19 November, in Dubai 23:00 on Wednesday, and in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore 03:00 on Thursday.

So for most readers in Asia, “minutes day” is really a middle-of-the-night event. The FOMC minutes event page has a countdown and a calendar file with a reminder. This page is the clock, the reading guide and the history.

FOMC minutes time in your country

Every time below is converted from 19:00 UTC on 18 November 2026 with the IANA time zone database (Python zoneinfo). Spreads often widen from about 15 minutes before.

From India eastwards, the minutes land on Thursday local time. If your city is missing, the gold economic calendar shows every scheduled US release in your browser’s own time zone.

Why it is later than the October minutes

The 7 October minutes came out while New York was on daylight time (UTC−4): 18:00 GMT, 23:30 IST. Since US clocks went back on 1 November, 2:00 pm New York is 19:00 GMT and 00:30 IST. Our US clock change guide lists all the new session times.

What the FOMC minutes are, in plain words

The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) is the part of the US Federal Reserve that sets interest rates. It meets eight times a year and ends each meeting with a short statement and a press conference: “Fed day”. See the FOMC glossary entry.

The minutes are the longer story of what happened in the room. The Fed’s FOMC calendar page says minutes of regular meetings are released three weeks after the policy decision. They cover:

• what Fed staff told the committee about the economy and markets,
• how officials (“participants”) saw inflation, jobs and growth,
• the risks they worried about,
• how many of them thought rates should go up, down or stay put in future,
• any discussion of the balance sheet, the Fed’s big holdings of government bonds.

The minutes do not say who said what. They use counting words such as “all”, “most”, “many”, “some”, “a few” and “a couple”. If “a few” wanted a hike last time and “many” do now, the mood has shifted.

Statement vs minutes: why the minutes are smaller news

The statement is the decision itself. The minutes are three weeks old, and markets have seen plenty of data since, so they usually move prices less. They matter when they reveal something the statement hid, such as a bigger group leaning one way.

What happened at the 27–28 October meeting

Here is what the Fed’s 28 October statement said, read today:

• The federal funds rate stayed at 3.75–4.00% (the statement writes it as “3-3/4 to 4 percent”).
• The vote was 10–2. Lisa D. Cook and Beth M. Hammack dissented: both preferred to raise rates by 0.25 percentage point at that meeting.
• The statement said “Inflation remains elevated” and “Economic activity is expanding at a strong pace.”
• On the future, it said that “the accumulation of more information will help the Committee determine the policy stance appropriate” to return inflation to 2%. There was no promise about December.
• On the balance sheet, the Committee said it “is continuing its policy of maintaining ample reserves in the banking system.”

That followed the hike on 16 September. Our full recap is Fed holds rates with two hike dissents.

What the last minutes said

The minutes of the 15–16 September meeting, released on 7 October, said:

• “all participants viewed a higher target range for the federal funds rate as appropriate” at that meeting, and
• “most participants assessed that another increase in the target range for the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate by year end.”

They also noted that participants “approached each meeting with an open mind.” The October minutes will show whether that “most” is still there now that the Fed has paused for one meeting.

What traders will look for on 18 November

The big question: is a December hike still the plan?

1. How many officials favour another hike

Two voters dissented for a hike, but the minutes cover all participants, voters or not. “Many” or “most” seeing a hike as likely would sound hawkish (leaning to higher rates). “Some” or “a few” would sound dovish (leaning to steady or lower rates) next to September’s “most”.

2. Inflation and oil worries

The September minutes named geopolitical energy price increases as one driver of inflation, and oil has swung hard since. Do officials see energy spreading into other prices? Worry that inflation expectations could “unanchor” (people starting to expect high inflation to last) is a hawkish sign.

3. Growth and jobs

The statement called growth “strong”. Confidence that the economy can take higher rates supports hike bets; worry about jobs cuts the other way.

4. The balance sheet and markets

Any change in plans for the Fed’s bond holdings, or concern about the Treasury market, can move yields. Worth a quick scan.

Why the minutes can move gold

Gold pays no interest. When traders expect higher US rates, Treasury yields and the dollar often rise, which makes holding gold less attractive and dearer for non-US buyers. So hawkish minutes can push gold down and dovish ones can lift it. The real yields and dollar tool shows that link on one chart.

The surprise matters more than the tone. In late October CME FedWatch already showed high odds of a December hike, so hawkish minutes may do little, while softer ones could move more. Our December hike odds explainer walks through those paths.

What gold did in the release hour of past minutes

We measured every minutes release since mid-2024 in our COMEX gold futures (GC) one-hour bars, UTC. The release hour is the bar containing 2:00 pm New York: 18:00 UTC on daylight-time dates (EDT, UTC−4), 19:00 UTC on standard-time dates (EST, UTC−5). “Move” is its close against the previous hour’s close.

The 3 July 2024 minutes are left out: our file has no bars after 17:00 UTC that day, the eve of the US Independence Day holiday.

What the table says, in plain words (our calculations from the rows above):

• The median release-hour range was $14.1.
• Ranges have grown. The last eight releases (November 2025 to October 2026) had a median of about $24. Before that, most were under $11.
• Direction split almost evenly: 10 up, 8 down. No edge.
• The biggest hour was 8 April 2026: a $41.7 range and a $29.4 drop.
• The minutes hour is only somewhat bigger than normal. The same 2:00 pm New York hour on 36 ordinary Wednesdays from November 2025 to early November 2026 had a median range of about $16.6, against about $24 for minutes hours in that year.

Whole-session moves are on the FOMC minutes event page; decision days, which move far more, are in how gold moved after the last Fed decisions. Past moves do not predict the next one.

A worked example: a $15–20 hour on a $1,000 account

On a standard XAUUSD contract, 1 lot is 100 ounces, so a $1 move is worth $100 per lot and $1 per 0.01 lot. Check your platform’s contract size first.

Run your own numbers with the position size calculator.

Common mistakes on minutes day, and the right way

Where the minutes fit before 9 December

Before the minutes come CPI (10 November, see our CPI time page), PPI (13 November) and retail sales (17 November). After them: October PCE (25 November) and the November jobs report (4 December). The Fed decides on Wednesday 9 December at 2:00 pm New York (19:00 GMT, 00:30 IST on 10 December), per the Fed’s FOMC calendar. The blackout period guide explains the quiet before it, and the FOMC day playbook is the plan for the day.

What to do now

1. Put Wed 18 Nov, 2:00 pm New York in your calendar in your own time zone (00:30 IST Thursday for India). The event page has a calendar file.
2. Re-read the October decision recap so you know what the statement already said.
3. On the day, check December hike odds on FedWatch before the release.
4. Mark this week’s levels from the gold cheat sheet before the release.
5. Decide in advance: trade small, or stay flat until the hour is over.
6. Afterwards, note the counting words on hikes and what gold did, ready for 9 December.

Sources

• Federal Reserve, November 2026 calendar: FOMC minutes of the 27–28 October meeting, 18 November 2026, 2:00 pm
• Federal Reserve, Meeting calendars and information: meeting dates (27–28 October, 8–9 December 2026) and the three-week rule for minutes
• Federal Reserve, FOMC statement, 28 October 2026: rate decision, vote and dissents
• Federal Reserve, Minutes of the FOMC, 15–16 September 2026
• XAUUSD Global, FOMC minutes and gold event page and our COMEX gold futures (GC=F) one-hour bar file, data to 4 November 2026; release-hour figures are our own calculations
• Time zone conversions: IANA time zone database via Python zoneinfo
• The account example is hypothetical

Educational content only, not financial advice. Trading gold with leverage carries a high risk of loss.

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