June gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around 50 cents an ounce higher Friday, 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 down 15 cents an ounce. Gold drew some support from a softer U.S. dollar. Otherwise, there was little overnight reaction to stress-test results for U.S. banks, with analysts saying so much of the news was leaked that it was already factored into prices. The next major event for the market is this morning's U.S. jobs report. At 7:50 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading up $5.80 to $915.85. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is up to $1.3416 from $1.3389 late Thursday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are up 12.80 points to 919.70. June crude oil is up $1.40 to $58.11 a barrel in overnight activity. The employment report is due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). April non-farm payrolls are expected to fall by 610,000, while the unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 8.9% from 8.5% in March. March wholesale-trade inventories data is due out at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) and is forecast to fall 1.2%. In New York Thursday, gold finished higher as the market continued to get a bid on anticipation of eventual inflation, although the metal backed down from its strongest levels during a choppy session. June gold rose $4.50 to $915.50 an ounce, while July silver rose 32 cents to $14.03. Comex gold warehouse stocks were down 596 ounces at 8,494,494 ounces Thursday, while silver stocks were down 15,360 ounces at 117,893,089 ounces.

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