The branch of the Federal Reserve Board that determines the monetary policies. Like the Bank of England, the FOMC is made of of a board of governers, currently there are seven members.
The FOMC meets eight times per year to set the fed funds rate, the discount rate. They also control the money money supply by buying and selling government securities. There is always speculation in the Currency Markets about what will occur in respect of interest rates prior to the news being released. The market will usually price in these expectations before the event, so if the news from the FOMC is inline with what is already priced in, the market may not move massively. It is often the case that a big deviation from what I widely expected (for example A shock rate hike) could move the market more, but not always.
