After nearly a year of policy pivots and economic data parsing, the Federal Reserve's final scheduled meeting of 2025 arrives December 9-10. Markets have spent twelve months dissecting every jobs report, every inflation print, every whisper from central bankers. Now comes the moment of truth.
The FOMC has held eight regularly scheduled meetings this year, starting with January 28-29 and marching through March, May, June, July, September, and October before landing here in December. Two days, one decision. The policy statement drops at 2:00 p.m. ET on December 10, followed immediately by Chair Powell's press conference. Markets will have just enough time to process the news before the next trading session.
Between now and then, the final employment and inflation data will arrive. No pressure. The numbers will either confirm the Fed's trajectory or throw a wrench into carefully laid plans. Industrial production data hits December 16, the G.17 release showing whether factories kept humming or sputtered. Money stock measures follow on December 23. The Senior Credit Officer Opinion Survey on Dealer Financing Terms arrives December 18, offering a window into credit conditions that most people ignore until something breaks.
The December meeting caps a year where mortgage rates, growth expectations, and financial market behavior all hinged on what twenty Federal Reserve officials thought about inflation and employment. Every rate decision rippled through housing, corporate borrowing, consumer spending. The H.15 Selected Interest Rates data, released daily, tracked how expectations shifted with each meeting. The interest rate decisions themselves create immediate currency value fluctuations as forex traders reposition based on the policy trajectory.
Looking ahead, 2026 brings eight more scheduled meetings, starting January 27-28 and ending December 8-9. Then January 26-27, 2027 begins the cycle again. The pattern holds, predictable and transparent, giving markets plenty of time to position themselves and panic appropriately.
Minutes from the December meeting will surface roughly three weeks later, letting analysts parse every nuance and debate what officials really meant. Currency traders will also watch the WM/Refinitiv 4pm Fix closely around the announcement, as Fed decisions typically trigger significant foreign exchange movements that get captured in this daily benchmark rate calculation. Understanding monetary policy shifts remains essential for predicting the direction of exchange rate movements in the days following major central bank announcements. But right now, before the meeting, markets are making their own statement. They're daring the Fed to surprise them. Good luck with that.
