The FOMC minutes are a detailed record of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, which are released three weeks after each meeting. The minutes provide a timely summary of the discussion during the meeting and the decisions taken at the meeting. They describe the views expressed by policymakers and explain the reasons for the Committees decisions. As an official record of the meeting, the minutes identify all attendees and provide a complete record of policy actions taken, including the votes by individual members on each policy action.

The FOMC minutes can help the public interpret economic and financial developments and understand the Committees decisions. They offer more granular detail on the process and reasoning behind certain policy actions, such as the views of specific Fed members and deeper perspectives on the U.S. economic picture and overall Fed balance sheet. By reading the FOMC minutes, investors can gain valuable insight into the Fed’s overarching policy and how it may influence their portfolios longer term.

The release of the FOMC minutes can significantly affect the volatility of U.S. asset prices and their trading volume, with the magnitude of the effects economically and statistically significant. While the FOMC meetings are not held in public, the FOMC minutes have been made public following the meetings in recent years.