We analyze in homological terms the homotopy fixed point spectrum of a T-equivariant commutative S -algebra R. There is a homological homotopy fixed point spectral sequence with E 2 s,t = H −s gp (T; H t (R; F p )), converging conditionally to the continuous homology H c s+t (R hT ; F p ) of the homotopy fixed point spectrum. We show that there are Dyer-Lashof operations β ǫ Q i acting on this algebra spectral sequence, and that its differentials are completely determined by those originating on the vertical axis. More surprisingly, we show that for each class x in the E 2r -term of the spectral sequence there are 2r other classes in the E 2r -term (obtained mostly by Dyer-Lashof operations on x) that are infinite cycles, i.e., survive to the E ∞ -term. We apply this to completely determine the differentials in the homological homotopy fixed point spectral sequences for the topological Hochschild homology spectra R = THH (B) of many S -algebras, including B = M U , BP , ku, ko and tmf . Similar results apply for all finite subgroups C ⊂ T, and for the Tate-and homotopy orbit spectral sequences. This work is part of a homological approach to calculating topological cyclic homology and algebraic K -theory of commutative S -algebras.