What Is a FOMC Meeting? What the Fed Decides and How Gold Reacts

The Fed just hiked rates for the first time since 2023, and gold’s reaction wasn’t what the textbook predicts. Here’s what an FOMC meeting actually decides, how the committee is structured, and the one number, not the headline vote, that actually moves gold and silver.

Real Yields vs. Nominal Rates: The Number That Actually Moves Gold

The Fed hiked and gold barely moved, because the real driver isn’t the policy rate. Here is the FRED data showing exactly which number explains gold’s September swings, and a simple rule of thumb for checking it yourself on any future move.

Municipal Bonds Just Broke a 15-Year Record. Gold Doesn’t Have This Problem.

Cities and states are borrowing at yields most haven’t planned for in fifteen years. A municipal bond record is really a story about every layer of government debt getting more expensive at once, and why gold answers to none of it.

Washington Sold $70 Billion in Debt. Wall Street Only Wanted Part of It.

A weak $70 billion Treasury auction, not the Fed, sent yields to their highest level since 2007 this week. Here’s the mechanism connecting Wall Street’s bond demand shortfall to gold and silver’s pullback, and why it’s a fiscal problem wearing a monetary costume.

Today’s PMI Beat Cuts Gold Two Ways. Only One Side Has Been Priced In.

A record flash PMI print sold off gold and silver Wednesday. The same S&P Global data shows input costs and backlogs climbing — a signal the tape has yet to price.

Gold Fell 1.7% Today. Silver Fell 3.6%. Five Signals Point at the Dollar, Not Demand.

The dollar and the Fed’s rate path are setting gold and silver’s price this week. Every demand signal points the other way. ETF holdings hit a seven-month high while gold fell — see the five signals separating price from ownership.

The Fed Just Hiked. Wall Street Keeps Getting More Bullish on Gold Anyway.

Five different signals, from a bank forecast to a Chinese regulatory notice, all point the same direction after last week’s Fed hike. None of them share a mechanism, but each one argues the case for gold and silver just got stronger, not weaker.

Silver Round-Tripped a 6.8% Shock in Nine Days. Real Yields Did It, Not Inflation.

Silver closed at $67.28 on September 9, before a drone strike shut Saudi Arabia’s largest oil pipeline. Nine days and one Fed hike later, it is almost back. Most coverage credits fading inflation fear. The Federal Reserve’s own data disagrees: breakevens fell while real yields rose 22 basis points.

Iran Hit a Tanker in Hormuz and Trump Threatened Iran. Oil Isn’t Reacting.

Iran hit a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and Trump weighed a big decision on Iran, yet oil barely moved. Here’s the real-yield mechanism behind gold and silver’s muted reaction today.

The Bank of Japan Just Hiked to a 31-Year High. Gold Barely Noticed.

Three central banks moved three different directions this week, and gold barely blinked at the biggest one. Here’s the yen carry-trade mechanism behind Japan’s quietest 31-year-high rate hike, and why this time was different from 2024’s disorderly unwind.