NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--December gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York about $9 an ounce higher Tuesday, based on electronic activity before the pit session at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. December silver is expected to be up about 19 cents an ounce. In overnight activity, spot gold edged slightly higher Tuesday, though it gave back some of its early gains as the dollar swung higher against the euro and European equity markets eased. Expectations of further dollar weakness and the lack of any large scrap-gold sales, however, had traders looking for gold to hold near current levels and possibly push toward last week's record high of $1,070.50 a troy ounce. In recent trading, spot gold was up $2.77 to $1,065.47. The euro was up to $1.4976. In screen trading before the pit open, the December S&P 500 futures were up 4.9 points. November crude is down 23 cents in overnight activity. U.S. economic reports Tuesday include: -- September housing starts at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), with total starts expected up 2% at 610,000. -- September producer price index at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), expected -0.2%. In New York Monday, gold climbed as the dollar weakened, with the metal also helped technically when a pullback stopped ahead of chart support. December gold rose $6.60 to settle at $1,058.10. December silver gained 20.5 cents to $17.625. Comex gold warehouse stocks were up 8,498 ounces at 9,403,016 ounces Tuesday, while silver stocks were down 275,906 ounces at 115,868,383 ounces.

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