December gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $4 an ounce higher Thursday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. September silver is expected to be around 8 cents stronger.
At 7:50 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading up $4.30 to $967.25.
In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is down to $1.4380 from $1.4415 late Wednesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the September S&P 500 futures are up 3.70 points to 1,004.50. September crude oil is down 3 cents to $71.94 a barrel in overnight activity.
The main U.S. economic report on the calendar Thursday is weekly first-time jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). The consensus forecast is for a 1,000 rise to 585,000.
In New York Wednesday, gold futures gave back some of their recent gains on profit-taking, falling in concert with outside markets. December gold fell $3.40 to $966.30 an ounce. Silver continued its recent trend of outperforming gold, however, with the September futures gaining 6.5 cents to $14.76 an ounce.
Comex gold warehouse stocks were down 1,768 ounces at 9,144,580 ounces Wednesday, while silver stocks were down 409,723 ounces at 117,817,682 ounces.
-By Allen Sykora, Dow Jones Newswires; 541-318-8765; allen.sykora@dowjones.com
