Gold price in December 2001: daily prices, high, low and change
Gold closed December 2001 at $278.70 an ounce, up 1.75% on the month. The highest close was $280.40 on 18 Dec and the lowest $272.20 on 10 Dec. Every trading day below, with ranks and context computed from COMEX data.
Gold price chart, December 2001 (daily close and high-low range, US$ per ounce)
Gold line = daily settlement; bars = intraday high to low where available; dashed line = November 2001 close ($273.90).
Daily gold prices in December 2001 (19 trading days)
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close | Change | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 3 Dec | $273.50 | $277.50 | $273.50 | $276.90 | +$3.00 | +1.10% |
| Tue 4 Dec | $276.90 | $277.20 | $275.00 | $275.40 | −$1.50 | −0.54% |
| Wed 5 Dec | $275.30 | $275.60 | $273.00 | $273.70 | −$1.70 | −0.62% |
| Thu 6 Dec | $274.20 | $274.30 | $273.10 | $274.20 | +$0.50 | +0.18% |
| Fri 7 Dec | $274.10 | $274.40 | $273.30 | $273.90 | −$0.30 | −0.11% |
| Mon 10 Dec | $272.50 | $273.20 | $271.20 | $272.20 | −$1.70 | −0.62% |
| Tue 11 Dec | $272.50 | $272.50 | $271.50 | $272.20 | $0.00 | 0.00% |
| Wed 12 Dec | $272.70 | $273.80 | $272.50 | $273.80 | +$1.60 | +0.59% |
| Thu 13 Dec | $274.00 | $274.40 | $273.50 | $273.90 | +$0.10 | +0.04% |
| Fri 14 Dec best day | $275.00 | $278.50 | $275.00 | $278.00 | +$4.10 | +1.50% |
| Mon 17 Dec | $278.20 | $278.20 | $277.00 | $277.70 | −$0.30 | −0.11% |
| Tue 18 Dec | $280.40 | $281.30 | $278.30 | $280.40 | +$2.70 | +0.97% |
| Wed 19 Dec worst day | $280.00 | $280.00 | $275.50 | $275.50 | −$4.90 | −1.75% |
| Thu 20 Dec | $276.50 | $276.50 | $276.00 | $276.00 | +$0.50 | +0.18% |
| Fri 21 Dec | $276.00 | $278.60 | $276.00 | $278.00 | +$2.00 | +0.72% |
| Wed 26 Dec | $278.30 | $280.90 | $278.30 | $279.70 | +$1.70 | +0.61% |
| Thu 27 Dec | $278.00 | $278.50 | $277.20 | $277.40 | −$2.30 | −0.82% |
| Fri 28 Dec | — | — | — | $276.50 | −$0.90 | −0.32% |
| Mon 31 Dec | $276.80 | $278.70 | $276.80 | $278.70 | +$2.20 | +0.80% |
Close = COMEX gold futures settlement in US dollars per troy ounce; change is against the previous trading day's close. Open, high and low are shown as — on 1 day where the source has no usable intraday data (common before 2012, when the front-month contract traded thinly in the data feed).
Monthly open, high, low and close
| December 2001 | Open | High | Low | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Settlements | $276.90 | $280.40 | $272.20 | $278.70 | +1.75% |
| Intraday | $273.50 | $281.30 18 Dec | $271.20 10 Dec | $278.70 | — |
Settlements: first, highest, lowest and last daily close of the month (the basis used on the 2001 page and the monthly returns heatmap). Intraday: the highest and lowest traded prices in the daily bars.
Source: COMEX gold futures (GC=F) daily settlements and intraday bars via Yahoo Finance; US CPI (FRED CPIAUCSL) for the inflation adjustment; World Bank Pink Sheet for the monthly London average. Figures are final settlements; sources may occasionally revise historical data.
Gold in December 2001: summary
Gold inched higher 1.75% in December 2001, finishing at $278.70 an ounce against $273.90 at the end of November 2001. Settlement prices ranged from $272.20 on 10 December 2001 to $280.40 on 18 December 2001, a spread of $8.20 (3.0%), narrower than the 4.6% average of the previous 12 months. Gold closed higher on 10 of 19 trading days and lower on 8; the strongest session was 14 December 2001 (+1.50%) and the weakest 19 December 2001 (−1.75%).
How December 2001 compares
- Against other Decembers: at +1.75%, December 2001 ranks 14th of 26 Decembers since 2000 (best first).
- Against every month: it ranks 137th of 313 months since September 2000, better than 56% of them.
- Range: the gap between the highest and lowest close was $8.20, or 3.0% of the opening level, 0.7× the 4.6% average of the previous 12 months.
- Daily moves: the average day moved 0.61% (up or down), against 0.61% over the previous 12 months, so December 2001 was about as volatile as usual.
- Streaks: the longest run of higher closes was 3 days and the longest run of lower closes 2 days.
- Bigger picture: at the month-end close gold was +2.46% for 2001 to the end of December and +2.46% over 12 months (against the December 2000 close of $272.00).
- Average price: the mean of the 19 daily closes was $276.01; the World Bank's monthly average of the London (LBMA) price was $276.00.
Across the other 25 completed Decembers since 2000, gold averaged +1.44% and rose in 16 of them (64%). December 2001 beat that average by 0.3 percentage points. The gold seasonality tool shows the same statistics for every calendar month, and the monthly returns heatmap lays out all Decembers side by side.
December 2001 in today's dollars
Adjusted for US consumer-price inflation, the $278.70 closing price equals about $528 in September 2026 dollars (CPI 177.4 in December 2001 against 336.3 in September 2026, FRED series CPIAUCSL), 90% more than the nominal figure. The gold price history hub restates every year's close on the same basis, and the all-time-high tracker lists every record close in nominal dollars.
Gold price by month in 2001
The gold price in 2001 page has the year's open, high, low and close, and the monthly archive on the gold price history hub explains how these month pages are built.
Frequently asked questions
What was the gold price in December 2001?
Gold closed December 2001 at $278.70 an ounce (COMEX settlement). It opened the month at $276.90 and averaged $276.01 across 19 trading days; the World Bank’s London average for the month was $276.00.
Did gold go up in December 2001?
Yes. Gold was up 1.75% in December 2001, from $273.90 at the end of November 2001 to $278.70. It closed higher on 10 of 19 days. Among Decembers since 2000 it ranks 14th of 26 (best first).
What was the highest gold price in December 2001?
The highest close was $280.40 on 18 December 2001. The highest intraday price in the daily bars was $281.30 on 18 December 2001.
What was the lowest gold price in December 2001?
The lowest close was $272.20 on 10 December 2001, $8.20 (3.0%) below the month’s highest close. The lowest intraday price was $271.20 on 10 December 2001.
Educational information only, not financial advice and not a forecast. Past prices do not predict future prices. See our risk disclaimer and editorial policy.