Gold price in May 2011: daily prices, high, low and change
Gold closed May 2011 at $1,535.90 an ounce, down 1.29% on the month. The highest close was $1,556.70 on 2 May and the lowest $1,479.80 on 17 May. Every trading day below, with ranks and context computed from COMEX data.
Gold price chart, May 2011 (daily close and high-low range, US$ per ounce)
Gold line = daily settlement; bars = intraday high to low where available; dashed line = April 2011 close ($1,556.00); larger dots = new all-time-high closes.
Daily gold prices in May 2011 (21 trading days)
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close | Change | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 2 May ATH | $1,572.90 | $1,576.60 | $1,543.10 | $1,556.70 | +$0.70 | +0.04% |
| Tue 3 May | $1,542.50 | $1,547.00 | $1,527.50 | $1,540.10 | −$16.60 | −1.07% |
| Wed 4 May | $1,535.00 | $1,539.00 | $1,506.20 | $1,514.90 | −$25.20 | −1.64% |
| Thu 5 May worst day | $1,514.70 | $1,520.70 | $1,471.00 | $1,480.90 | −$34.00 | −2.24% |
| Fri 6 May | $1,473.20 | $1,494.80 | $1,472.30 | $1,491.20 | +$10.30 | +0.70% |
| Mon 9 May | $1,501.50 | $1,512.80 | $1,501.30 | $1,502.90 | +$11.70 | +0.78% |
| Tue 10 May | $1,508.40 | $1,516.90 | $1,508.40 | $1,516.60 | +$13.70 | +0.91% |
| Wed 11 May | $1,524.00 | $1,524.10 | $1,495.20 | $1,501.10 | −$15.50 | −1.02% |
| Thu 12 May | — | — | — | $1,506.60 | +$5.50 | +0.37% |
| Fri 13 May | $1,503.50 | $1,511.30 | $1,490.20 | $1,493.40 | −$13.20 | −0.88% |
| Mon 16 May | $1,489.30 | $1,494.90 | $1,489.30 | $1,490.40 | −$3.00 | −0.20% |
| Tue 17 May | $1,489.80 | $1,491.80 | $1,473.00 | $1,479.80 | −$10.60 | −0.71% |
| Wed 18 May | — | — | — | $1,495.60 | +$15.80 | +1.07% |
| Thu 19 May | — | — | — | $1,492.20 | −$3.40 | −0.23% |
| Fri 20 May best day | $1,499.00 | $1,512.70 | $1,488.70 | $1,508.80 | +$16.60 | +1.11% |
| Mon 23 May | — | — | — | $1,515.30 | +$6.50 | +0.43% |
| Tue 24 May | $1,527.10 | $1,527.10 | $1,521.90 | $1,523.20 | +$7.90 | +0.52% |
| Wed 25 May | $1,526.40 | $1,527.50 | $1,526.10 | $1,526.60 | +$3.40 | +0.22% |
| Thu 26 May | — | — | — | $1,522.80 | −$3.80 | −0.25% |
| Fri 27 May | $1,519.40 | $1,538.50 | $1,518.40 | $1,536.30 | +$13.50 | +0.89% |
| Tue 31 May | $1,536.70 | $1,541.10 | $1,532.40 | $1,535.90 | −$0.40 | −0.03% |
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 5 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
| May 2011 | Open | High | Low | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Settlements | $1,556.70 | $1,556.70 | $1,479.80 | $1,535.90 | −1.29% |
Settlements: first, highest, lowest and last daily close of the month (the basis used on the 2011 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 May 2011: summary
Gold slipped 1.29% in May 2011, settling the month at $1,535.90 an ounce against $1,556.00 at the end of April 2011. Settlement prices ranged from $1,479.80 on 17 May 2011 to $1,556.70 on 2 May 2011, a spread of $76.90 (4.9%), narrower than the 5.4% average of the previous 12 months. Gold closed higher on 11 of 21 trading days and lower on 10; the strongest session was 20 May 2011 (+1.11%) and the weakest 5 May 2011 (−2.24%).
Gold set 1 new all-time-high close in May 2011, the highest at $1,556.70 on 2 May 2011. It ended a run of 3 straight monthly gains.
How May 2011 compares
- Against other Mays: at −1.29%, May 2011 ranks 17th of 26 Mays since 2001 (best first).
- Against every month: it ranks 211th of 313 months since September 2000, better than 33% of them.
- Range: the gap between the highest and lowest close was $76.90, or 4.9% of the opening level, 0.9× the 5.4% average of the previous 12 months.
- Daily moves: the average day moved 0.73% (up or down), against 0.70% over the previous 12 months, so May 2011 was about as volatile as usual.
- Streaks: the longest run of higher closes was 4 days and the longest run of lower closes 3 days.
- Bigger picture: at the month-end close gold was +8.08% for 2011 to the end of May and +26.70% over 12 months (against the May 2010 close of $1,212.20).
- Average price: the mean of the 21 daily closes was $1,511.01; the World Bank's monthly average of the London (LBMA) price was $1,513.00.
Across the other 25 completed Mays since 2001, gold averaged +0.33% and rose in 13 of them (52%). May 2011 lagged that average by 1.6 percentage points. The gold seasonality tool shows the same statistics for every calendar month, and the monthly returns heatmap lays out all Mays side by side.
May 2011 in today's dollars
Adjusted for US consumer-price inflation, the $1,535.90 closing price equals about $2,298 in September 2026 dollars (CPI 224.8 in May 2011 against 336.3 in September 2026, FRED series CPIAUCSL), 50% 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 2011
The gold price in 2011 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 May 2011?
Gold closed May 2011 at $1,535.90 an ounce (COMEX settlement). It opened the month at $1,556.70 and averaged $1,511.01 across 21 trading days; the World Bank’s London average for the month was $1,513.00.
Did gold go up in May 2011?
No. Gold was down 1.29% in May 2011, from $1,556.00 at the end of April 2011 to $1,535.90. It closed higher on 11 of 21 days. Among Mays since 2001 it ranks 17th of 26 (best first).
What was the highest gold price in May 2011?
The highest close was $1,556.70 on 2 May 2011. It was a new all-time-high close.
What was the lowest gold price in May 2011?
The lowest close was $1,479.80 on 17 May 2011, $76.90 (4.9%) 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.