June gold futures are expected to open floor trading in New York around $10 an ounce lower Tuesday, 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 40 cents an ounce. The metals fell overnight on demand concerns, as holdings by exchange-traded funds have not picked up lately and on reports that Indian buying ahead of the Hindu holiday Akshaya Trithya was not as strong as hoped for, said overseas analysts. At 7:54 a.m. EDT, spot gold was trading down $9.55 to $897.35. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is down to $1.2970 from $1.3033 late Monday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are down 15.30 points to 841.50. June crude oil is down $1.26 to $48.88 a barrel in overnight activity. On the U.S. economic front, the February Case-Shiller Home Price is due out at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT), with the Richmond Federal Reserve's manufacturing index and Conference Board's Consumer-Confidence Index due out at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). April consumer confidence is forecast at a 29 reading, up from 26 the prior month. A two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee begins, with the post-meeting statement scheduled for release Wednesday afternoon. In New York Monday, gold futures fell slightly in technically oriented trading, with pressure on other commodities and a higher U.S. dollar also weighing. June gold fell $5.90 to settle at $908.20 an ounce. July silver, however, rose 3.5 cents to settle at $12.985 an ounce. Comex gold warehouse stocks were down 6,136 ounces at 8,453,302 ounces Monday, while silver stocks were down 573,422 ounces at 116,017,650 ounces.

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