June gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $4 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 little changed.
Spot gold rallied after China's announcement that its gold holdings are more than 70% higher than previously reported. However, traders also cautioned the rally could be capped by profit-taking. The head of China's foreign exchange agency Hu Xiaolian said China increased its gold holdings by 76% in the past six years to 1,054 metric tons, and has informed the IMF of the change, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.
At 7:54 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading up $6.25 to $909.55.
In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is up to $1.3240 from $1.3143 late Thursday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are up 4.90 points to 853.80. June crude oil is up 82 cents to $50.44 a barrel in overnight activity.
U.S. economic data Friday include March durable-goods orders due out at 8:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT), forecast to be down 1.5%; and new-home sales at 10 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT), expected to be steady at an annual rate of 337,000.
In New York Thursday, gold futures rose sharply on a resumption of flight-to-safety demand, with the move accelerating when chart-based buying was triggered. June gold gained $14.10 to $906.60 an ounce, while July silver rose 45.1 cents to $12.783.
Comex gold warehouse stocks were steady at 8,459,438 ounces Thursday, while silver stocks were down 477,032 ounces at 116,604,013 ounces.
