December gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $15 an ounce lower Thursday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. December silver is expected to be down 45 cents. Some of the consolidation lower that some analysts have been calling for appears to be occurring, particularly with the euro losing ground, observers said. At 7:59 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading down $14.65 to $1,048.25. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is down to $1.4879 from $1.4919 late Wednesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the December S&P 500 futures are down 3.70 points to 1,084. November crude oil is down 14 cents to $75.04 a barrel in overnight activity. U.S. economic reports scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) include the New York Federal Reserve's October manufacturing survey (forecast at 19), the September Consumer Price Index (expected up 0.1% for both the overall and core rate excluding food and energy), and first-time weekly jobless claims (forecast down 6,000). Other reports on the calendar include the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing survey at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), forecast to post a reading of 12, and weekly U.S. energy-inventory data at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). In New York Wednesday, gold futures trimmed losses but still ended marginally lower - after hitting a fresh record overnight - as participants booked profits and producers sold to lock in high prices. December gold fell 30 cents to settle at $1,064.70 while December silver gained 6.8 cents to $17.908 an ounce. Comex gold warehouse stocks were up 50,769 ounces at 9,390,680 ounces Wednesday, while silver stocks were up 2,029 ounces at 116,217,123 ounces.

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