When Does the Gold Market Open?
Quick answer: Gold trades nearly around the clock on weekdays. CME Globex, where COMEX gold futures trade, runs Sunday to Friday from 5:00 p.m. Central time, with a daily maintenance break from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central. No source we read gives these hours in Eastern time, so here is the plain conversion: Eastern is one hour later, which makes it Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, Eastern time, with a pause from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET each weekday.
That near-continuous trading is why the gold spot market price keeps changing at hours when no coin shop is open. Between the end of the US day and the next morning, Shanghai and London take turns, and quotes follow whichever of them is busy.
| Venue | Local hours | Eastern time (ET) |
|---|---|---|
| COMEX gold futures (CME Globex) · open now | Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. Chicago time, with a daily 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. maintenance break | Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m.; break 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
| LBMA Gold Price auctions (London) · open now | 10:30 and 15:00 London time, business days | 5:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. |
| Shanghai Gold Exchange, day session · open now | 9:00 to 15:30 Beijing time | 8:00 p.m. the evening before to 2:30 a.m. |
| Shanghai Gold Exchange, night session · open now | 20:00 to 2:30 Beijing time | 7:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. the evening before |
Reading the table
The table lists every venue that moves the gold price during a normal week, converted to US Eastern time for the date you open the page. Each venue sets its hours in its own local time, and the UK and US move their clocks on different weekends, so the gap between London and New York is not the same all year. Rather than print one fixed offset that is wrong for part of the year, the table is worked out from each venue's local hours. A live marker shows which session is open as you read; the table is complete without it.
Below, each venue in the order its trading day begins for a US reader.
CME Globex: the hours most US quotes follow
COMEX's filing with the CFTC for its 1-Ounce Gold contract sets out the gold complex's Globex hours: Sunday to Friday from 5:00 p.m. Central time, with a daily maintenance period from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central. A broker's spec page for the main GC contract, MetroTrade's, describes the same pattern and adds the end of the week: trading stops at 4:00 p.m. Central on Friday, and the hour-long halt applies Monday through Thursday.
Put together, the electronic market is shut from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening and for one hour on each weekday evening. Everything else is trading time. Because most American price sites and news wires lean on COMEX gold for their live figure, these are the hours that decide when a US quote can move.
London: an all-day market with two auctions
London does not open and close the way an exchange does. LBMA's guide calls it an OTC market rather than an exchange-traded one, with members trading bilaterally, principal to principal. Trading there follows the working day of the banks and dealers rather than a bell.
Twice a day, though, London produces a reference number. The LBMA Gold Price auctions run at 10:30 and 15:00 London time, are priced in US dollars, and are administered by ICE Benchmark Administration. Many contracts, funds and reports point to those two prices. The page on how the gold spot price is set explains what happens inside an auction and how it relates to the live spot quote.
Shanghai: a night session and a day session
The Shanghai Gold Exchange runs two blocks of trading. On its English trading-hours table, the evening block starts at 20:00 the day before and ends at 2:30, daytime trading runs 9:00 to 15:30, and the market closes at 15:45. The table does not name a time zone; Beijing time is implied, as it is the exchange's own.
Two quirks stand out. Monday's night session actually runs from 20:00 on the previous Friday to 2:30 on Saturday, so Shanghai trades on what is still Friday evening in China. And there is no night session before a public holiday.
Within the day session, the exchange also sets its yuan benchmark. The benchmark rules we read, amended in November 2019, put its two fixings at 10:15 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.. Those times may have changed since the rules were written, which is why the table keeps the benchmark inside the day-session row rather than giving it a separate line. For what the benchmark is and how it compares with New York, see the Shanghai gold price page.
Why spot moves on Sunday evening and overnight
Weekend news does not wait for Monday. When Globex reopens on Sunday evening, everything that happened since Friday's close gets priced in the first minutes, and the first quote of the week can sit well above or below Friday's last one. On a chart, that shows up as a gap between two bars that no trade filled. The guide on how to read a gold spot chart shows what those gaps look like and why they are not errors.
The same thing happens on a smaller scale every night. After the US afternoon, the futures market keeps trading, Shanghai's day session runs through the American night, and London's working day begins before the East Coast is awake. A spot quote follows trading wherever it is active, so the figure on your phone at 3 a.m. is as real as the one at noon, even if fewer people are dealing.
Your dealer, meanwhile, may be closed. A shop or website that posts prices only during business hours is not the market; it takes the market's price and adds its own margin. That is why what the spot price of gold is and what a seller asks are separate questions, and why a quote you saw last night may not be the one a dealer offers you this morning.
Holidays
Holidays affect each venue differently, and we only state what a source supports. In London, a spot trade needs two good London business days to settle, and LBMA notes that metal will not settle on US holidays. In Shanghai, there is no night session before a public holiday. CME's own holiday calendar could not be read for this page, so the table does not list US holiday hours for Globex; check CME Group's holiday notice for the week you care about.
When a dealer locks your price
Every dealer sells above spot and buys back below it. A CFTC and FINRA investor bulletin says a dealer will always sell metal above the spot price and buy it back below. The question for timing is the moment the price stops moving for you.
One large US online dealer's help article, last updated in January 2025, says the price is locked once you place the order, not when you pay, and is then no longer subject to spot changes. The same article says that if you cancel, it charges the difference in spot between the order time and the cancellation, which it calls a market loss. Another dealer's help page says the price is locked at order placement and holds whatever the market does before settlement or delivery.
In practice, then, overnight moves matter only until you commit. Once the order is placed, the spot price can rise or fall without changing what you owe, though cancelling can cost you the move. Read the seller's own terms on this before ordering, and see spot price vs retail price for what sits between the quote and the invoice.
This page can't tell you which hour is a good one to trade, whether Sunday's opening price will hold, or how a particular dealer handles orders placed while its desk is shut. It sets out when each market is open, as the venues and their filings describe it; what you do with those hours is your call.
Information, not financial advice. This page does not tell you to buy or sell, and it does not forecast prices. Figures are reference values at the time shown.
If you are looking at gold for a retirement account rather than a trade, the hour of the day matters less than the terms. Our page on Augusta Precious Metals lists what that company states about itself, and the live spot chart shows where the price stands now.
Frequently asked questions
Is the gold market open on weekends?
Not on CME Globex. Its gold contracts stop on Friday afternoon and restart on Sunday evening, US time. Shanghai's Monday night session does start on Friday evening Beijing time, but nothing in the main venues trades through Saturday and Sunday daytime, so spot quotes sit still until the Sunday reopening.
What time does gold open on Sunday in Eastern time?
CME Globex opens gold trading at 5:00 p.m. Central time on Sunday, according to COMEX's filing for its 1-Ounce Gold contract. Eastern time is one hour later, so that is 6:00 p.m. ET. The first prices of the week often differ from Friday's close because weekend news is priced in at once.
Why does the gold price change at night when stores are closed?
Gold trades on electronic markets and between banks almost around the clock, so the spot quote follows Shanghai, London and New York in turn. Dealers and shops keep their own hours and set their prices from the market, adding their margin. Your price is usually locked only when you place an order.
Sources
Every page a fact on this page came from, marked as the publisher's own page or a page that reports it, with the date we read it.
- cftc.gov (cftc.gov; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- help.metrotrade.com (help.metrotrade.com; a page reporting it; read 2026-11-11)
- lbma.org.uk (lbma.org.uk; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- ice.com (ice.com; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- lbma.org.uk (lbma.org.uk; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- en.sge.com.cn (en.sge.com.cn; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- en.sge.com.cn (en.sge.com.cn; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- lbma.org.uk (lbma.org.uk; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- cftc.gov (cftc.gov; the publisher's own page; read 2026-11-11)
- help.jmbullion.com (help.jmbullion.com; a page reporting it; read 2026-11-11)
- bullionstar.com (bullionstar.com; a page reporting it; read 2026-11-11)