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Gold’s best year of the 1980s after the blow-off: a sliding dollar and October’s Black Monday stock crash drove it up nearly 25% to about $500.
Monthly path for 1987, anchored to the real open ($ 391.00), the high in December, the low in January, and the close ($ 487.00). The dashed line marks the yearly average; intra-year movement between anchor points is illustrative.
Year-over-year, gold rose +24.55% versus its 1986 close of $ 391.00.
1987 gave gold its finest hour of the post-1980 era. The backdrop was a relentlessly weakening dollar — the deliberate result of 1985’s Plaza Accord that even February’s Louvre Accord could not fully arrest — plus creeping inflation and a ballooning US trade deficit. Gold climbed steadily through the year as international investors hedged their dollar exposure.
Then came October 19. Black Monday wiped 22.6% off the Dow in a single session, a collapse without precedent, and money stampeded into the classic refuge. Gold spiked toward $500 by mid-December, closing the year up nearly 25%. It proved to be the bear-market rally’s high-water mark — the crash’s economic fallout never arrived, and gold would not trade at $500 again until 2005 — but 1987 remains the textbook example of gold doing exactly what it is held for.
The US dollar fell sharply all year despite the February Louvre Accord meant to stabilize it.
On October 19 — Black Monday — the Dow crashed 22.6% in one day, the worst single-day fall in its history.
Gold surged after the crash as investors sought insurance, peaking near $500 in mid-December.
Rising US inflation and trade-deficit worries revived hard-asset demand throughout the year.
Gold averaged about $446 per ounce in 1987, rising from roughly $390 in January to a December peak near $500 — a gain of almost 25% for the year.
The October 1987 stock-market crash triggered a rush into safe havens, accelerating a rally already fueled by the falling dollar and pushing gold to about $500 by December.
Gold's 1987 high was about $ 500.00 per troy ounce, reached in December.
The average gold price in 1987 was roughly $ 446.00 per troy ounce — it opened near $ 391.00 and closed around $ 487.00.
Gold rose about 24.6% over 1987, between a low of $ 390.00 and a high of $ 500.00.
Historical figures are approximate annual values shown for educational analysis and may differ from other sources. This is not financial advice — see our disclaimer.