June gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $6 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 up 33 cents an ounce. Spot gold maintained its recent strength in overseas trading during the night, after it rallied on a combination of rising market inflation expectations, a weaker dollar and signs of concern about U.S. assets across the spectrum, said UBS analyst John Reade. Also, Standard & Poor's revised its outlook for the U.K. to negative from stable Thursday, and that attracted fresh buying and there was fund short-covering, traders said. At 7:55 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading up $2.65 to $957.05. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is up to $1.3972 from $1.3892 late Thursday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are up 3 points to 891.70. July crude oil is up 65 cents to $61.70 a barrel in overnight activity. No major U.S. economic reports are on the calendar Friday. In New York Thursday, gold futures hit a roughly two-month high as the U.S. dollar continued to flounder, with the metal's gains accelerating amid technical and fund buying. June gold rose $13.80 to $951.20 an ounce, while July silver gained 16.5 cents to $14.445. Comex gold warehouse stocks were down 215,185 ounces at 8,297,906 ounces Thursday, while silver stocks were steady at 119,808,518 ounces.

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