PRECIOUS-Gold inches up after posting 1-pct weekly loss

SINGAPORE, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Gold edged up on Monday after
posting a 1 percent loss in the previous week, tracking a
positive tone in equities on hopes of progress in the U.S.
budget talks, while rising tensions in the Middle East supported
its safe-haven appeal.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold inched up 0.2 percent to $1,716.50 an
ounce by 0038 GMT, after posting a 1-percent decline last week.
* U.S. gold edged up 0.1 percent to $1,716.60.
* Speculators raised their net long bets in U.S. gold in the
week ended Nov. 13 from the three-month-plus low hit a week
earlier, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.

* Net long positions in U.S. silver edged up to 27,802
contracts from 27,350 contracts a week earlier, its lowest since
late August.
* Republican and Democratic congressional leaders emerged
from a meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday pledging to
find common ground on taxes and spending that would allow them
to avert an upcoming "fiscal cliff" that could send the economy
back into recession.
* The escalating violence in the Middle East helps support
gold's safe-haven appeal. Israeli ministers were on Friday asked
to endorse the call-up of up to 75,000 reservists after
Palestinian militants nearly hit Jerusalem with a rocket for the
first time in decades and fired at Tel Aviv for a second day.

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MARKET NEWS
* Hope that U.S. politicians would find common ground to
steer clear of the "fiscal cliff" boosted stocks on Friday,
though the gains were not enough to offset the week's losses.

* The yen was hovering near a seven-month low versus the
dollar at the start of the week, as expectations of more
stimulus by Japanese authorities after next month's election
made holding the already low-yielding currency even less
appealing.

DATA/EVENTS
0900 Italy Industrial orders Sep
1500 U.S. Existing home sales Oct
1500 U.S. NAHB housing market index Nov

PRICES

Precious metals prices 0038 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1716.50 3.01 +0.18 9.76
Spot Silver 32.35 0.14 +0.43 16.83
Spot Platinum 1557.24 3.24 +0.21 11.79
Spot Palladium 626.00 -1.00 -0.16 -4.06
COMEX GOLD DEC2 1716.60 1.90 +0.11 9.56 3799
COMEX SILVER DEC2 32.35 -0.02 -0.06 15.89 567
Euro/Dollar 1.2746
Dollar/Yen 81.42
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Eric Meijer)