June gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $4 an ounce lower Thursday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. May silver is expected to be down 19 cents an ounce. At 7:54 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading down $3.15 to $888.45. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro was down to $1.3193 from $1.3227 late Wednesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures were down 3.40 points to 844.80. May crude oil was up 43 cents to $49.68 a barrel in overnight activity. U.S. economic data Thursday include: - first-time weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), forecast to rise 9,000 to 663,000; - March housing starts at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), expected to fall 7.4% to an annual rate of 540,000; and - the Philadelphia Fed's April manufacturing index, with the headline number forecast at minus 32.8 compared to minus 35 the prior month. In New York on Wednesday, gold futures ended relatively steady after failing at the $900 level but finding support on short covering despite potential deflationary consumer price data. June gold rose $1.50 to settle at $893.50 an ounce, while May silver gained 3.5 cents to settle at $12.80 an ounce. Comex gold warehouse stocks were up 9,904 ounces at 8,589,798 ounces on Wednesday, while silver stocks were up 993 ounces at 115,674,197 ounces.

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