PRECIOUS-Gold steady; US budget talks in focus

SINGAPORE, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Gold was little changed on
Monday after posting the third straight week of losses, as
investors await progress on the negotiations in Washington to
avert a fiscal disaster that could push the world's top economy
into a recession.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was flat at $1,695.01 an ounce by 0039
GMT, after falling nearly half a percent in the previous week.
* U.S. gold traded little changed at $1,696.40.
* U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's offer
to accept a tax rate increase for the wealthiest Americans
knocks down a key Republican road block to a deal resolving the
year-end "fiscal cliff."
* Hedge funds and money managers raised their bullish bets
on U.S. gold futures and options to 129,865 contracts in the
week ended Dec. 11, up from a more than three-month low of
126,073 lots in the previous week.
* But they cut net length in silver to 34,862 lots, its
lowest since late November.
* Conservative ex-premier Shinzo Abe will get a second
chance to lead Japan after his Liberal Democratic Party won a
landslide victory in Sunday's election, but he must move swiftly
to bolster a sagging economy and manage strained ties with China
to avoid the fate of his short-lived predecessors.

* Spot palladium inched down 0.1 percent to $699.06,
after rising for seven weeks straight, its longest winning
streak in more than two years.
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks fell on Friday as another slide in Apple took
a toll and investors unloaded some shares because of the
uncertainty surrounding the "fiscal cliff" negotiations.
* The yen slumped to its lowest in over a year-and-a-half
against the U.S. dollar on Monday as part of a broad skid after
Japan's conservative LDP party, pledged to hyper-easy monetary
policy, won a landslide victory at an election.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0900 Italy Trade balance Oct
1000 Euro zone Trade data Oct
1000 Euro zone Labour costs Q3
1330 US NY Fed Empire State survey Dec
1600 US Fed Board Governor Stein speaks
1800 US Richmond Fed President Lacker speaks

PRICES

Precious metals prices 0039 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1695.01 -0.08 -0.00 8.39
Spot Silver 32.31 0.16 +0.50 16.68
Spot Platinum 1609.99 -4.01 -0.25 15.58
Spot Palladium 699.06 -0.94 -0.13 7.14
COMEX GOLD FEB3 1696.40 -0.60 -0.04 8.27 3808
COMEX SILVER MAR3 32.38 0.08 +0.25 15.99 849
Euro/Dollar 1.3160
Dollar/Yen 83.98
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Ed Davies)