What Time Does the COMEX Close? Understanding COMEX Market Hours

If you have ever searched for a clear answer to “what time does the COMEX close,” you have likely run into a frustrating mix of conflicting times, confusing time zones, and explanations that assume you already know the difference between a trading halt, a settlement window, and a weekend shutdown. A common misconception is that COMEX operates on a simple “9-to-5” schedule like a stock exchange. It does not. COMEX, the Commodity Exchange division of CME Group, runs on an electronic platform that spans nearly the entire trading week, and the “close” can mean several different things depending on what you are actually trying to find out.

The COMEX market hours are built around a continuous electronic session on CME Globex. For the flagship gold futures contract (GC), the regular schedule runs from Sunday through Friday, opening at 5:00 p.m. Central Time and closing at 4:00 p.m. Central Time the following day. In Eastern Time, that translates to a 6:00 p.m. open and a 5:00 p.m. close, with a daily maintenance break from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. This means the market is essentially open 23 hours a day during the workweek, pausing only for that brief daily reset before the next session begins.

When people ask about the COMEX market closing time today, they are often looking for the moment when the most active trading winds down for the day. That moment is the 5:00 p.m. ET halt, which is followed by the one-hour maintenance window. It is important to distinguish this from the settlement period. For gold futures, the settlement price is determined during the regular trading hours window, which runs from 7:20 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CST (8:20 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET). The official settlement occurs at 12:30 p.m. CST, but the market itself continues to trade well beyond that point. Confusing the settlement time with the closing time is one of the most common sources of error.

The weekly close is simpler. COMEX closes for the weekend at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday and reopens at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday. From Sunday evening through Friday afternoon, the market is accessible to traders around the world almost continuously. This structure exists because COMEX is a global price-discovery venue. Gold, silver, copper, and other metals trade on a 24-hour cycle that reflects demand from Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

If you are based in India, the time difference adds another layer of confusion. The COMEX market open time in India corresponds to the Sunday evening reopen in the United States. When COMEX opens at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, it is already Monday morning in India—specifically, 3:30 a.m. IST. The daily close at 5:00 p.m. ET translates to 2:30 a.m. IST the next day. For Indian traders watching gold or silver, this means the most active overlap with US liquidity happens during Indian afternoon and evening hours. The COMEX market open time for a new trading day in India effectively falls in the early morning, while the close arrives in the middle of the night.

Understanding these timings matters because missing a close or misjudging a session boundary can leave a position exposed longer than intended. If you are monitoring COMEX metals through a trading platform like MetaTrader 5 or MetaTrader 4, checking quotes and managing open positions typically requires opening the terminal application on your desktop. That is fine when you are at your computer, but it becomes inconvenient if you are stepping away, working in another window, or simply trying to keep an eye on things without the full terminal taking up screen space.

This is where a tool like Camovia Tray fits naturally into the workflow. It turns MT5 or MT4 into a tray utility, allowing you to hover over a system tray icon to see live quotes for your watchlist without opening the terminal. If you have open positions in gold or silver futures, you can view them and close them directly from the tray popup. The data still comes from your local MT5/MT4 terminal and stays on your computer. For someone tracking COMEX hours and price movements throughout a long trading session, this kind of quick-access view can make it easier to stay informed without constantly switching back to a full application window.

The key takeaway is that COMEX does not have a single, simple closing time. The daily pause happens at 5:00 p.m. ET, the weekly close is Friday at 5:00 p.m. ET, and settlement occurs earlier in the afternoon. Once you separate those concepts, the schedule becomes much easier to work with.