FOMC Minutes November 2026
November 18 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
FOMC Minutes November 2026
Next FOMC Minutes: Wednesday, at 2:00 pm ET (7:00 pm London).
Date to be confirmed by the publisher; this is the scheduled date.
- Consensus
- Not yet published
- Prior
- Held at 3.50%-3.75%
- Actual
- Pending
Full schedule and background: FOMC Minutes.
Updated
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) publishes the minutes of its October 27-28, 2026 meeting on Wednesday, November 18, 2026 at 2:00 pm ET, which is 7:00 pm in London. The minutes are released three weeks after the policy decision and give a detailed account of the discussion behind the vote, including how members weighed inflation, employment and financial stability risks. Full schedule and background: FOMC Minutes.
Note on timing: the Federal Reserve has not published a separate confirmation notice for this specific minutes release beyond the standing pattern. FOMC minutes are, as a rule, released three weeks after the second day of each scheduled meeting, so November 18, 2026 follows that established convention rather than a fresh announcement.
What is the FOMC and what does it decide?
The FOMC is the branch of the Federal Reserve System responsible for setting US monetary policy, principally the federal funds rate, the interest rate at which banks lend reserves to each other overnight. Its decisions ripple through mortgage rates, savings yields, business borrowing costs and the value of the dollar worldwide.
The committee operates under a dual mandate from Congress: maximum employment and stable prices, which the Fed interprets as inflation averaging around 2% over time. It comprises the seven members of the Board of Governors and five of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents, who rotate voting rights annually (the New York Fed president votes every year).
The FOMC holds eight regularly scheduled meetings a year, roughly every six to eight weeks, according to the Federal Reserve’s own meeting calendar. Four of these meetings, in March, June, September and December, are accompanied by a Summary of Economic Projections, popularly known as the dot plot.
When is the October FOMC decision reflected in these minutes?
The minutes released on November 18, 2026 cover the two-day meeting held October 27-28, 2026, which is the meeting immediately before this minutes publication. The policy statement and rate decision from that meeting were announced on October 28 at 2:00 pm ET, with a press conference roughly 30 minutes later, in the Fed’s usual format. The October meeting did not carry a Summary of Economic Projections; that material is reserved for the March, June, September and December meetings. The minutes themselves add colour that the same-day statement cannot: the balance of views among members, any dissents, and how officials characterised the outlook for growth, inflation and the labour market.
What to expect
At its most recently confirmed decision before the autumn cycle, the FOMC held its target range at 3.50% to 3.75% at the July 28-29, 2026 meeting, a hold that passed 9-3, according to reporting summarised by FedRateCalc. That range had also been maintained at the March 18, 2026 meeting, as noted by Equals Money. Markets watching the September and October meetings have continued to price expectations through tools such as the CME FedWatch tool and overnight index swaps, though this page does not have a verified, sourced outcome for those two meetings at the time of writing. Readers should check the Federal Reserve’s own statement pages for the confirmed September 16 and October 28, 2026 decisions.
| Meeting | Decision | Rate after meeting |
|---|---|---|
| March 17-18, 2026 | Hold | 3.50% – 3.75% |
| July 28-29, 2026 | Hold (vote 9-3) | 3.50% – 3.75% |
Rows for meetings without an independently verified outcome have been omitted rather than guessed. Check the Fed’s official calendar and statements for the confirmed record of every meeting.
Market impact scenarios
| Scenario | Likely market read | What it means in plain English |
|---|---|---|
| Minutes show a hawkish tilt | Traders may push back the timing of any future rate cut, according to typical patterns seen on CME FedWatch after hawkish minutes | Borrowing costs stay higher for longer, which can support the dollar but weigh on stock prices |
| Minutes show a dovish tilt | Futures markets often price in a higher probability of an earlier or larger rate cut | Cheaper borrowing becomes more likely sooner, which can lift shares but weaken the dollar |
| Minutes reveal a split committee | Analysts typically flag rising uncertainty about the next move, increasing volatility around subsequent data releases | No clear signal for savers or borrowers yet, so rates on mortgages and deposits may stay range-bound until the next meeting |
What will the minutes signal?
Analysts read FOMC minutes for three things: forward guidance on the likely path of rates, evidence of internal disagreement (dissents), and any discussion of the Fed’s balance sheet, including the pace of asset holdings runoff or reinvestment. A minutes text that repeats a “data dependent” framing without new detail is usually read as a signal of no near-term change. A minutes text that shows several members pushing for a different path than the one taken at the meeting can move bond yields even though the policy decision itself is already three weeks old news.
Watch, too, for any language on financial stability, since minutes sometimes flag risks in specific markets such as commercial property or leveraged lending that do not appear in the shorter post-meeting statement.
What It Means for Your Money
The federal funds rate sets the base for a wide range of borrowing costs. If the minutes suggest the Fed is closer to cutting, US mortgage rates and other loan and credit card rates can start to drift lower even before an actual cut, because lenders price in expectations. If the minutes suggest the Fed will hold rates higher for longer, variable-rate loans and new fixed-rate mortgages tend to stay expensive, and savings accounts and money market funds keep paying attractive yields for a little longer.
For UK and eurozone readers, US rate expectations still matter. A more hawkish Fed tends to support the dollar against the pound and the euro, which makes imports priced in dollars, including oil, more expensive in London and Frankfurt. It can also pull global bond yields higher, indirectly nudging UK and eurozone mortgage and loan pricing even though the Bank of England and the European Central Bank set their own rates separately. For pensions and other investments, shifts in Fed rate expectations move US Treasury yields, which in turn affect global bond and equity valuations, including funds widely held in UK workplace pensions and European retirement schemes.
Related events
- Previous FOMC minutes: October 2026 FOMC Minutes
- The Fed’s official October 27-28, 2026 meeting statement and press conference, published on the Federal Reserve’s calendar page
- US inflation (CPI) and employment (nonfarm payrolls) releases published in the weeks before the October and December FOMC meetings, which shape the discussion recorded in these minutes
Frequently Asked Questions
What time are the November 2026 FOMC minutes released?
The minutes are released at 2:00 pm ET on November 18, 2026, which is 7:00 pm in London.
Which meeting do these minutes cover?
They cover the two-day FOMC meeting held October 27-28, 2026, giving a fuller account of that meeting’s discussion than the same-day policy statement.
What is the current federal funds rate?
The target range was 3.50% to 3.75% after the July 28-29, 2026 meeting, according to Federal Reserve reporting; readers should check the Fed’s own statement for any change made at the September or October 2026 meetings.
When is the next FOMC meeting?
The FOMC’s final scheduled meeting of 2026 is on December 8-9, 2026, with the decision due on December 9 and accompanied by a fresh Summary of Economic Projections.
Where can I read the minutes in full?
The full text is published on the Federal Reserve’s own monetary policy calendar page alongside the original statement and implementation note.