Gold market hours: is gold open now, in your time

Gold's hours through the year

Computed from CME's New York hours with the IANA time zone rules for 6 November 2026 to 31 December 2027.

Who sets gold's hours

The weekly clock is the one CME Group publishes for COMEX gold futures on CME Globex: Sunday 18:00 to Friday 17:00 New York time, with a 60-minute break each day from 17:00, according to CME's gold fact card. Spot gold, XAU/USD, is a broker's own product, and each broker sets the hours of its symbol. On 6 November 2026 we read the published gold hours of IG, OANDA and Pepperstone, and their weekly opens and closes were all within five minutes of CME's. Your broker's hours may differ by a few minutes: in MT5, right-click the gold symbol in Market Watch and choose Specification to see its sessions, in the broker's server time.

In New York time for the week of 6 December 2026, from each page as read on 6 November 2026. Brokers change their hours, so check your own platform.

The daily break

From 17:00 to 18:00 New York, 22:00 to 23:00 UK in most weeks, gold stops trading, so nothing fills: no new trades, no closes, no stops and no targets. The forex pairs trade through that hour, apart from a pause of a few minutes at the 17:00 rollover at some brokers: OANDA's forex break runs from 16:59 to 17:05 New York. Spreads can widen in the minutes either side of the break, and why gold's spread jumps at night shows what that does to a stop.

When the clocks change

New York sets the clock, so in UK time gold opens at 23:00 on Sunday, breaks from 22:00 to 23:00 and closes at 22:00 on Friday in winter and summer alike, because the UK and the US both move their clocks. In the weeks when only one of them has changed, every UK time is an hour earlier: 14 to 27 March 2027 and 31 October to 6 November 2027. The clock on this page reads the time zone rules built into your browser, so it moves on the right dates by itself.

Gold's hours in other cities

Days are local, so in Dubai gold's week runs from early Monday to early Saturday, and in Sydney from Monday morning to Saturday morning.

Winter, week of 6 December 2026

Summer, week of 4 July 2027

Holidays

CME runs a holiday schedule on the US holidays in its Globex holiday calendar, and brokers publish their own gold hours for those days; Veterans Day and Columbus Day are not on it. For the rest of 2026 CME lists holiday schedules for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year; the forex and gold holiday calendar lists every date to the end of 2027, with what CME and the NYSE have published.

Open is not the same as busy

In our gold market data, measured from one-minute prices from 26 March to 25 September 2026, gold's busiest hours by median range were 14:00 to 16:00 and 02:00 to 03:00 UK. The best time to trade gold goes through the day hour by hour, and the news calendar gives the dates and times of the US jobs, inflation and Fed releases.

Questions

What time does the gold market open?

Sunday at 18:00 New York time, which is 23:00 UK time in most weeks and 22:00 UK from 14 to 27 March 2027 and 31 October to 6 November 2027. Brokers can open a few minutes later: OANDA's XAU/USD opens at 18:05 New York.

What time does gold close on Friday?

17:00 New York time, 22:00 UK time in most weeks. Brokers can close a few minutes earlier: Pepperstone's gold closes at 23:55 server time, which is 16:55 New York in winter.

Does gold trade 24 hours a day?

Almost: 23 hours a day from Sunday evening to Friday evening, New York time. It stops for an hour each weekday from 17:00 to 18:00 New York, 22:00 to 23:00 UK in most weeks, and over the weekend.

What are gold trading hours in UK time?

Sunday 23:00 to Friday 22:00, with a daily break from 22:00 to 23:00, in most weeks. When the UK and US clocks are out of step, all three are an hour earlier: 14 to 27 March 2027 and 31 October to 6 November 2027.

Is gold open on Christmas Day and other holidays?

CME runs a holiday schedule on the US holidays in its Globex holiday calendar, and brokers publish their own hours. It lists schedules for Thanksgiving (26 to 28 November 2026), Christmas (24 to 26 December 2026) and New Year (31 December 2026 to 1 January 2027). The holiday calendar lists every date.

Why does my platform show different gold hours?

MT5 shows times in the broker's server time, and each broker sets its own session for XAU/USD. Pepperstone, for example, publishes its hours in GMT+2 in winter and GMT+3 in summer. Compare your server clock with your own once, and again after each clock change.