PRECIOUS-Gold steady; U.S. fiscal uncertainty weighs
SINGAPORE, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Gold traded steady on Monday, after posting its second consecutive monthly decline in November, as uncertainty about the U.S. budget negotiations kept investors on tenterhooks. But speculators raised their net length in gold for the third straight week, and holdings of gold-backed exchange-traded funds hit a record high, underscoring investors' interest in the precious metal.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged up 0.1 percent to $1,716.81 an ounce by 0033 GMT, after dropping a slight 0.3 percent in November. U.S. gold was up 0.3 percent to $1,717.10.
* President Barack Obama turned up the pressure in "fiscal cliff" talks on Friday, hitting the road to drum up support for his drive to raise taxes on the wealthy and warning Americans that Republicans were offering them "a lump of coal" for Christmas.
* Hedge funds and money managers raised bullish bets on gold and silver futures for a third consecutive week as the U.S. fiscal crisis triggered safe-haven buying, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.
* November sales of U.S. American Eagle gold coins are set to be the strongest in 14 years as uncertainty surrounding the U.S. fiscal crisis and the presidential election triggered safe-haven buying, dealers said.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holding rose to a record high of 1,348.826 tonnes on Nov. 30.
* China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to a seven-month high of 50.6 in November from 50.2 in October, confirming a trend toward recovering growth in the world's second-largest economy.
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MARKET NEWS
* The euro suffered a bit of a setback on Monday in the wake of Moody's downgrade of the euro zone rescue fund late last week, but the Australian dollar fed off growing optimism about the economic health of its biggest export market, China.
* The S&P 500 wrapped up its fifth positive month in the last six on Friday, although it ended the day flat as politicians remain at odds about how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.
DATA/EVENTS
0145 China HSBC Mfg PMI Final Nov 0500 India HSBC Markit Mfg PMI Nov 0500 U.S. Total Vehicle Sales Nov 0843 Italy Markit/ADACI Mfg PMI Nov 0853 Germany Markit/BME Mfg PMI Nov
0858 Euro zone Markit Mfg PMI Nov
1500 U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI Nov 1500 U.S. Construction spending Oct
PRICES Precious metals prices 0033 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1716.81 1.92 +0.11 9.78 Spot Silver 33.55 0.16 +0.48 21.16 Spot Platinum 1599.00 -0.50 -0.03 14.79 Spot Palladium 678.97 1.97 +0.29 4.06 COMEX GOLD DEC2 1717.10 4.40 +0.26 9.59 2968 COMEX SILVER MAR3 33.63 0.35 +1.05 20.47 852 Euro/Dollar 1.2995 Dollar/Yen 82.42
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Himani Sarkar)