\documentclass[11pt,letterpaper]{article} % Essential packages \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage[english]{babel} \usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsthm} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{booktabs} \usepackage{longtable} \usepackage{setspace} \usepackage{natbib} \usepackage{hyperref} \usepackage{geometry} \usepackage{caption} \usepackage{subcaption} \usepackage{float} \usepackage{pdflscape} \usepackage{rotating} \usepackage{adjustbox} \usepackage{threeparttable} \usepackage{enumitem} % Page geometry \geometry{ top=1in, bottom=1in, left=1in, right=1in } % Hyperlink configuration \hypersetup{ colorlinks=true, linkcolor=blue, citecolor=blue, urlcolor=blue } % Theorem definitions \newtheorem{definition}{Definition} \newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem} \newtheorem{proposition}{Proposition} \newtheorem{assumption}{Assumption} % Line spacing \doublespacing % Begin document \begin{document} % Title page \begin{titlepage} \begin{center} \vspace*{1.5cm} {\LARGE \textbf{Returns and Volatility Around FOMC Announcements:}}\\[0.4cm] {\LARGE \textbf{A High-Frequency Analysis of Policy Tone and Novelty}}\\[1.5cm] {\large Simon-Pierre Boucher\footnotemark[1] \qquad Marie-H\'el\`ene Gagnon\footnotemark[2] \qquad Gabriel J. Power\footnotemark[3]}\\[1cm] {\large 2026-03-06}\\[1cm] \end{center} \footnotetext[1]{PhD student in finance, Universit\'e Laval, Quebec City QC Canada G1V 0A6, email: simon-pierre.boucher.1@ulaval.ca} \footnotetext[2]{Professor of Finance and Research Fellow, CRREP, Universit\'e Laval, email: marie-helene.gagnon@fsa.ulaval.ca} \footnotetext[3]{IG Wealth Management Chairholder, Professor of Finance and Research Fellow, CRREP and CRIB, Universit\'e Laval, email: gabriel.power@fsa.ulaval.ca} \begin{abstract} \noindent We decompose FOMC statements into policy tone (hawkish/dovish) and informational novelty (departure from previous messaging) and estimate their effects on high-frequency asset returns and volatility. Using 1-minute data for 7 futures contracts across 148 FOMC events (2008--2025), we find that tone predicts directional returns (a one-standard-deviation dovish shift is associated with equity gains that build to about 12 basis points within two hours) while novelty predicts volatility changes (the stance--novelty interaction on VIX persists from 5 to 120 minutes, $t = -5.06$). Policy stance is associated with realized volatility changes in 6 of 7 contracts ($p < 0.01$). Pre-announcement placebo tests and five independent inference methods validate these results. To construct our measures, we train a dual-model ensemble (MiniLM and BERT) on FOMC communications with data-driven PCA-based reference selection. \end{abstract} \vspace{0.3cm} \noindent \textbf{JEL Classification:} E52, E58, G12, G14 \noindent \textbf{Keywords:} Monetary policy, FOMC announcements, high-frequency data, textual analysis, market volatility \end{titlepage} \newpage % Include all sections \input{sections/01_introduction} \input{sections/02_data} \input{sections/03_methodology} \input{sections/04_results} \input{sections/05_conclusion} % Tables \input{tables/tables} % Figures \input{figures/figures} % Appendices \clearpage \appendix \input{appendices/appendix_proofs} \clearpage \input{appendices/appendix_additional} % Bibliography \newpage \bibliographystyle{apalike} \bibliography{master} \end{document}