Gold price in January 2004: daily prices, high, low and change
Gold closed January 2004 at $402.20 an ounce, down 3.25% on the month. The highest close was $426.40 on 9 Jan and the lowest $398.50 on 29 Jan. Every trading day below, with ranks and context computed from COMEX data.
Gold price chart, January 2004 (daily close and high-low range, US$ per ounce)
Gold line = daily settlement; bars = intraday high to low where available; dashed line = December 2003 close ($415.70).
Daily gold prices in January 2004 (19 trading days)
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close | Change | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 5 Jan best day | — | — | — | $424.40 | +$8.70 | +2.09% |
| Tue 6 Jan | — | — | — | $422.80 | −$1.60 | −0.38% |
| Wed 7 Jan | — | — | — | $421.90 | −$0.90 | −0.21% |
| Thu 8 Jan | — | — | — | $424.00 | +$2.10 | +0.50% |
| Fri 9 Jan | — | — | — | $426.40 | +$2.40 | +0.57% |
| Mon 12 Jan | $425.80 | $428.20 | $425.80 | $426.30 | −$0.10 | −0.02% |
| Tue 13 Jan | $425.40 | $425.90 | $423.00 | $423.70 | −$2.60 | −0.61% |
| Wed 14 Jan | — | — | — | $421.70 | −$2.00 | −0.47% |
| Thu 15 Jan | — | — | — | $408.40 | −$13.30 | −3.15% |
| Fri 16 Jan | — | — | — | $406.70 | −$1.70 | −0.42% |
| Tue 20 Jan | — | — | — | $412.70 | +$6.00 | +1.48% |
| Wed 21 Jan | — | — | — | $411.10 | −$1.60 | −0.39% |
| Thu 22 Jan | — | — | — | $410.00 | −$1.10 | −0.27% |
| Fri 23 Jan | — | — | — | $407.90 | −$2.10 | −0.51% |
| Mon 26 Jan | — | — | — | $406.60 | −$1.30 | −0.32% |
| Tue 27 Jan | — | — | — | $410.00 | +$3.40 | +0.84% |
| Wed 28 Jan | — | — | — | $414.50 | +$4.50 | +1.10% |
| Thu 29 Jan worst day | $412.00 | $412.00 | $396.50 | $398.50 | −$16.00 | −3.86% |
| Fri 30 Jan | $398.00 | $402.60 | $398.00 | $402.20 | +$3.70 | +0.93% |
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 15 days 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
| January 2004 | Open | High | Low | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Settlements | $424.40 | $426.40 | $398.50 | $402.20 | −3.25% |
Settlements: first, highest, lowest and last daily close of the month (the basis used on the 2004 page and the monthly returns heatmap). Intraday highs and lows are not shown because the source lacks usable intraday data for part of this month.
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 January 2004: summary
Gold dropped 3.25% in January 2004, closing the month at $402.20 an ounce against $415.70 at the end of December 2003. Settlement prices ranged from $398.50 on 29 January 2004 to $426.40 on 9 January 2004, a spread of $27.90 (6.7%), wider than the 6.6% average of the previous 12 months. Gold closed higher on 7 of 19 trading days and lower on 12; the strongest session was 5 January 2004 (+2.09%) and the weakest 29 January 2004 (−3.86%).
The −3.86% move on 29 January 2004 was the largest one-day fall of 2004, and the largest in the daily record, which starts in August 2000. On the monthly change, January 2004 was the 3rd-worst January of the 26 since 2001.
How January 2004 compares
- Against other Januaries: at −3.25%, January 2004 ranks 24th of 26 Januaries since 2001 (best first).
- Against every month: it ranks 260th of 313 months since September 2000, better than 17% of them.
- Range: the gap between the highest and lowest close was $27.90, or 6.7% of the opening level, 1.0× the 6.6% average of the previous 12 months.
- Daily moves: the average day moved 0.95% (up or down), against 0.84% over the previous 12 months, so January 2004 was about as volatile as usual.
- Streaks: the longest run of higher closes was 2 days and the longest run of lower closes 5 days.
- Bigger picture: at the month-end close gold was +9.20% over 12 months (against the January 2003 close of $368.30).
- Average price: the mean of the 19 daily closes was $414.73; the World Bank's monthly average of the London (LBMA) price was $414.00.
Across the other 25 completed Januaries since 2001, gold averaged +3.20% and rose in 17 of them (68%). January 2004 lagged that average by 6.4 percentage points. The gold seasonality tool shows the same statistics for every calendar month, and the monthly returns heatmap lays out all Januaries side by side.
January 2004 in today's dollars
Adjusted for US consumer-price inflation, the $402.20 closing price equals about $726 in September 2026 dollars (CPI 186.3 in January 2004 against 336.3 in September 2026, FRED series CPIAUCSL), 81% 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 2004
The gold price in 2004 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 January 2004?
Gold closed January 2004 at $402.20 an ounce (COMEX settlement). It opened the month at $424.40 and averaged $414.73 across 19 trading days; the World Bank’s London average for the month was $414.00.
Did gold go up in January 2004?
No. Gold was down 3.25% in January 2004, from $415.70 at the end of December 2003 to $402.20. It closed higher on 7 of 19 days. Among Januaries since 2001 it ranks 24th of 26 (best first).
What was the highest gold price in January 2004?
The highest close was $426.40 on 9 January 2004.
What was the lowest gold price in January 2004?
The lowest close was $398.50 on 29 January 2004, $27.90 (6.7%) below the month’s highest close.
Educational information only, not financial advice and not a forecast. Past prices do not predict future prices. See our risk disclaimer and editorial policy.