Palladium Futures: NYMEX Contract, Prices and Specifications for 100 Troy Ounces

NYMEX palladium futures trade at pending per troy ounce for the pending contract as of pending, or pending for one 100-ounce contract. The record is $3,440.76 per troy ounce (7 March 2022, Trading Economics), and speculators were net short palladium futures on 28 July 2026 (CFTC).

What Is the Palladium Futures Price Today?#

The palladium futures price today is pending per troy ounce on the pending NYMEX contract, pending against the prior settlement of pending, from vendor data stamped pending and delayed as the vendor license sets.

Palladium is one of six platinum group metals, and the platinum group metal prices of all six sit side by side under live platinum group metal prices.

On 6 August 2026 the palladium front month was September 2026 (PAU2026), with contracts listed out to December 2028 (TradingView).

Each of the price data sources behind the widget, from CME futures to the LBMA benchmark, is documented with its license under price data sources.

Palladium Futures Price per Troy Ounce, Gram and Contract#

One troy ounce of palladium costs pending on the front-month futures price, one gram pending and one 100-ounce contract pending. A contract holds 3,110.35 grams (3.110 kg); the palladium price per kilogram and per unit is listed below.

The gram value is the ounce price divided by 31.1034768 and the kilogram value the ounce price times 32.1507466, the same troy ounce factors as the troy ounce converter.

A 1 US dollar move per troy ounce changes one contract's value by 100 US dollars.

The palladium price per gram today follows the London spot market, not NYMEX: palladium price per gram today.

Palladium Futures Prices by Contract Month#

Palladium futures trade in four quarterly contract months, March, June, September and December, and the gap between them shows whether the market is in contango or backwardation. The next four palladium months are listed below from one vendor snapshot.

The curve reads pending.

Contango means deferred months trade above the nearby month, the normal state that pays for funding, storage and insurance; backwardation is the reverse and signals scarce immediate metal (LBMA glossary). The glossary entry on contango adds the comparison with spot.

Palladium's full-carry contango is steeper than gold's because palladium storage costs four times as much (BullionVault, 6 August 2026), so a flat palladium curve signals a larger physical squeeze than a flat gold curve.

What Is a Palladium Futures Contract?#

A palladium futures contract is a NYMEX agreement to buy or sell 100 troy ounces of palladium at a set price for a set delivery month, listed on CME Group's New York Mercantile Exchange. Each position stands until an opposite trade closes it, a roll moves it or delivery settles it against metal in CME-approved depositories. CME publishes that exchange stock daily as registered and eligible metal, the only directly observable palladium inventory of any size.

The underlying metal is palladium (Pd), atomic number 46, with CAS number 7440-05-3 and an atomic mass of 106.42 (PubChem), covered under palladium (Pd), element 46.

The palladium futures contract fixes four terms, listed below.

• Exchange: NYMEX, part of CME Group.
• Quantity: 100 troy ounces (3.110 kg) per contract.
• Price: US dollars per troy ounce.
• Delivery month: March, June, September or December.

Palladium Futures Symbol: PA, PA1! and PA=F#

Palladium futures trade under the root symbol PA, with the month and year appended (PAU2026 is September 2026) and continuous-contract symbols PA1! on TradingView and PA=F on Yahoo Finance. The four symbols are listed below.

• PA: the NYMEX root symbol, CFTC commodity code 075651.
• PAU2026: September 2026, the front month on 6 August 2026.
• PA1!: TradingView's continuous series, 15,890 contracts open on 6 August 2026.
• PA=F: Yahoo Finance's continuous front-month quote.

Platinum trades as PL on the same exchange, defined under NYMEX.

Palladium Futures Contract Specifications#

The NYMEX palladium contract covers 100 troy ounces (3.110 kg), twice the 50-ounce platinum contract, quoted in US dollars per troy ounce on a March, June, September and December cycle. The verified terms of both NYMEX platinum group metal contracts are listed below.

Palladium's 18,699 contracts held 1.870 million troy ounces (58.2 tonnes) on 28 July 2026, about 70% of platinum's 2.683 million although platinum had 2.9 times as many contracts, and about one-fifth of the 9,245,000 oz of 2026 demand Johnson Matthey forecasts.

Tick value, margin, deliverable grade, trading hours and price limits are not established: CME's specification pages were unreachable on 6 August and 25 September 2026, and two public sources disagree on the tick by a factor of ten.

Palladium Futures Open Interest and CFTC Positioning#

On 28 July 2026, non-commercial traders were net short 4,767 NYMEX palladium contracts (476,700 oz) while commercials were net long 4,414 contracts, according to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report. Total open interest was 18,699 contracts, or 1.870 million troy ounces. The positions by trader category are listed below.

CFTC legacy futures-only report, NYMEX palladium (code 075651), 28 July 2026; the widget's positioning module refreshes weekly with its own date.

Non-commercials held 11,628 of the 18,699 short contracts, 62.2% of palladium's short open interest. Platinum was positioned the opposite way that day: its non-commercials were net long 11,635 contracts (581,750 oz) and its commercials net short 16,151, so the two metals read as separate trades.

Palladium's over-the-counter market is smaller too: LBMA trade reporting put the 12-week average value of palladium trades at $6.96 billion for the period ending 31 July 2026, against $15.50 billion for platinum.

Palladium Futures Price vs the Palladium Spot Price#

The palladium futures price is a price for delivery in a named future month on NYMEX, while the spot price is for unallocated palladium in London, settled two business days after the trade. London's benchmark, the LBMA Palladium Price, has been auctioned by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) since 1 July 2026, straight after each platinum auction at 09:45 and 14:00 after the London Metal Exchange (December 2014 to 30 June 2026). Its rules sit under LBMA palladium price.

Futures normally trade above spot by the cost of carry: funding, storage and insurance, less lease income. With a hypothetical 4% funding rate and BullionVault's 0.48% annual storage rate (6 August 2026), three months of full carry cost about 1.12% of spot, against about 1.03% for gold at 0.12%.

The palladium spot price today rarely shares the futures timestamp, so this page never subtracts one from the other; see palladium spot price today.

An exchange for physical (EFP) links the two markets: a negotiated swap of a futures position for an equivalent over-the-counter position, quoted as a US dollar per ounce differential. A widening EFP signals metal in the wrong vault, an expected tariff or sanctions cost, or a funding dislocation; no current palladium EFP level is verified.

How spot, futures and physical prices differ is set out under spot, futures and physical prices.

What Moves Palladium Futures Prices?#

Palladium futures prices move on Russian and South African supply, automotive demand, US trade policy, exchange stocks and speculative positioning, plus substitution by platinum. Each driver's direction and dated evidence is listed below.

Palladium shares these drivers with platinum, weighted differently; what drives the platinum and palladium price over the long run is under what drives the platinum and palladium price.

Russian Supply and the 2025-2026 US Palladium Trade Case#

US imports of Russian palladium stopped in August 2025 after Sibanye-Stillwater and the United Steelworkers filed an anti-dumping petition at the end of July 2025 (Johnson Matthey PGM Market Report, May 2026). Russia supplied 36% of US palladium imports in 2021 to 2024, and US net import reliance for palladium was 57% in 2025 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

The case follows 2022, when the London Platinum and Palladium Market suspended two Russian refineries from its Good Delivery lists on 8 April and sanctions fear accelerated platinum-palladium substitution.

The steps of the US palladium trade case are listed below in order.

1. End of July 2025: Sibanye-Stillwater and the United Steelworkers petition the US Department of Commerce.
2. August 2025: US imports of Russian palladium cease (Johnson Matthey).
3. 28 April 2026: Commerce sets a final anti-dumping margin of 132.83% (case A-821-840).
4. 20 May 2026: Commerce's final countervailing duty determination is affirmative (case C-821-841).
5. June 2026: the US International Trade Commission (USITC) finds no injury, so no order takes effect.
6. 16 July 2026: Sibanye-Stillwater appeals at the US Court of International Trade.
7. 24 September 2026: the appeal is pending.

No duty order on Russian palladium is in effect as of 24 September 2026; Johnson Matthey's May 2026 report, which described duties as fixed, predates the USITC ruling.

Russian palladium supply still falls on Johnson Matthey's estimate, from 2,950,000 oz in 2025 to 2,450,000 oz in 2026, about 17% lower; the detail is under Russian palladium supply.

Exchange Stocks and the Two Palladium Market Balances#

Metals Focus puts the 2025 palladium deficit at 1,069,000 ounces and Johnson Matthey at 416,000, partly because Metals Focus counts 171,000 ounces of exchange-stock build as demand and Johnson Matthey does not. Exchange stocks sit in CME-approved depositories against futures, so metal drawn into NYMEX warehouses counts as demand in one balance only. Both balances are listed below, each on its own basis.

The two disagree even on the sign for 2026, and on 2025 Russian supply (2,950,000 oz at Johnson Matthey, 2,725,000 oz at Metals Focus), so they never share a calculation here. Each palladium market balance is broken down under palladium market balance.

Palladium Futures Price History: Records by Series#

The highest palladium price on record is $3,440.76 per troy ounce, reached on 7 March 2022 as sanctions fears peaked after Russia's invasion of Ukraine (Trading Economics; Reuters, same day). Palladium's records sit on several series, and each point below names its own.

One metal, several series: each record carries its own.

Annual averages show the unwind after the record: palladium averaged $2,398 in 2021, $2,112 in 2022, $1,337 in 2023 (down 36.7%) and $984 in 2024 (down 26.4%) on metalcharts.org's LBMA-based series. The palladium price history back to 1970 is on palladium price history.

Palladium stood 59.8% below its March 2022 record on 6 August 2026 and needed a 148.6% gain to reclaim it, according to metalcharts.org.

The live palladium price chart plots the path between these points: palladium price chart.

Palladium Futures in China: The GFEX Contract#

China's Guangzhou Futures Exchange (GFEX) has listed physically settled palladium futures since 27 November 2025, in 1,000-gram lots priced in yuan per gram, according to the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC). Platinum futures launched the same day and options on both followed on 28 November. The two palladium contracts are compared below.

One NYMEX contract equals 3.11 GFEX lots. The 2,224 kg delivered on GFEX in June 2026 equals about 71,500 troy ounces, the metal behind roughly 715 NYMEX contracts; WPIC reported it on 16 July 2026 with 2,276 kg of platinum.

Russian palladium has also moved into Chinese bonded zones in larger volumes since September 2025, according to Johnson Matthey (May 2026). Imports and demand in China's platinum and palladium market are covered under China's platinum and palladium market.

Trading, Holding and Tracking Palladium Futures#

Palladium futures give price exposure without holding metal, unlike bars, coins and physically backed ETFs. Both routes sit in the wider platinum group metals market, covered from mine to recycling under platinum group metals market.

How Palladium Futures Are Traded and Rolled#

Trading palladium futures requires an account with a futures broker that has NYMEX access; positions are rolled from one quarterly month to the next before delivery. The five steps are listed below.

1. Open an account with a futures broker offering NYMEX palladium (PA).
2. Choose a month: March, June, September or December.
3. Post the margin the broker requires; current CME levels are not verified here.
4. Close with an opposite trade, or roll into a deferred month at the calendar spread.
5. Hold to expiry only with the capacity to make or take delivery of 100 troy ounces.

The wider steps of how to buy platinum and palladium futures and bullion are on how to buy platinum and palladium futures.

Palladium Futures vs Bars, Coins and ETFs#

Palladium futures expire and need margin, while vaulted palladium bars carry 0.48% a year in storage at BullionVault (6 August 2026), four times its 0.12% for gold. Bars and coins are compared under investing in palladium.

Palladium ETF holdings reached 1.14 million ounces at the end of 2025, the highest since early 2015, then lost about 100,000 oz in Q1 2026 (Johnson Matthey, May 2026).

Those palladium ETFs hold metal for shareholders without an expiry date: palladium ETFs.

Investing in platinum group metals by all four routes is compared under investing in platinum group metals.

Platinum Futures and the Other Platinum Group Metals#

Platinum and palladium are the only platinum group metals with listed futures anywhere; rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium trade on producer, refiner and dealer quotes. Platinum futures cover 50 troy ounces, half the palladium unit: platinum futures. The six metals' main series are listed below.

Palladium Futures FAQ#

Is palladium expected to go up?#

No price direction is certain; Johnson Matthey (14 May 2026) forecasts a small 214,000-ounce palladium surplus for 2026, and WPIC (11 June 2026) expects deficits to turn to surpluses from 2027. Named, dated outlooks are on palladium price forecast.

Why is palladium crashing?#

Palladium was 59.8% below its March 2022 record on 6 August 2026 (metalcharts.org), as sanctions-driven substitution toward platinum set in and annual averages fell 36.7% in 2023 and 26.4% in 2024. Johnson Matthey ties the March 2026 fall, to $1,448, to concern about the world economy after war broke out in Iran and to US dollar strength.

What is the highest price palladium has ever reached?#

Palladium's highest price is $3,440.76 per troy ounce, on 7 March 2022 (Trading Economics). At that level one gram cost $110.62 and one 100-ounce NYMEX contract was worth $344,076.

What will palladium be worth in 2030?#

The published 2030 outlook is a market balance, not a price: WPIC's 11 June 2026 model shows a 518,000-ounce palladium surplus in 2030, after surpluses in every year from 2027. Dated outlooks sit on palladium price forecast.

Who is the biggest buyer of palladium?#

The automotive sector is the biggest buyer of palladium: automotive demand is 7,829,000 of 9,245,000 ounces (84.7%) in Johnson Matthey's 2026 forecast. Electrical and electronics uses follow at 538,000 oz and chemical uses at 529,000 oz.

Is it better to invest in platinum or palladium?#

The two metals differ in contract size and positioning: on 28 July 2026 speculators were net long platinum futures and net short palladium futures (CFTC). Platinum has traded above palladium since at least end-2025, reversing the order palladium began when it reached parity on 27 September 2017; platinum vs palladium compares both metals.