April gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $15 an ounce lower Monday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. March silver is expected to be down about 21 cents an ounce. At 7:54 a.m. EST, spot gold was trading down $6.50 to $985.40. In overnight activity, spot gold pared losses as bargain-hunting emerged after a bout of profit-taking overnight. Traders were split over whether gold would resume last week's rally in the near term, or consolidate its recent gains below $1,000 a troy ounce. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is down to $1.2793 from $1.2826 late Friday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the March S&P 500 futures are up 5.50 points to 775.00. U.S. economic reports on Monday include the January Chicago Fed National Activity Index at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) and the February Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook Survey at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT). In New York Friday, gold futures pushed to their highest point in nearly a year, topping $1,000 an ounce as continued equities weakness sent investors in search of a safe haven. April gold rose $25.70 to settle at $1,002.20 an ounce. Comex gold warehouse stocks were unchanged at 8,458,484 ounces Friday, while silver stocks were steady at 124,743,230 ounces.

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