June gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $9 an ounce higher Thursday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. July silver is expected to be up 28 cents an ounce. At 7:51 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading up $9.55 to $920.45. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is up slightly to $1.3355 from $1.3332 late Wednesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are up 5.60 points to 922.80. June crude oil is up $1.56 to $57.90 a barrel in overnight activity. U.S. economic data due out Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) include first-time weekly jobless claims, forecast to be up 4,000 to 635,000, and first-quarter non-farm productivity and unit labor costs, forecast to be up 0.3% and 2.8%, respectively. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak on banking supervision at a Chicago Fed banking conference at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT), and the result of U.S. bank stress tests are expected Thursday afternoon. In New York on Wednesday, gold futures ticked higher on follow-through in anticipation of U.S. bank stress-test results expected Thursday, plus ideas that any economic improvement may mean inflation down the road, analysts said. June gold rose $6.70 to $911 an ounce, while July silver gained 29 cents to $13.71. Comex gold warehouse stocks were up 6,507 ounces at 8,495,090 ounces Wednesday, while silver stocks were down 28,378 ounces at 117,908,449 ounces.

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