PRECIOUS-Gold inches down, but on track for best weekly gain since Nov
SINGAPORE, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Gold inched down on Friday ahead of talks to prevent the United States from plunging off a "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts, but the metal remained on track for its biggest weekly gain in a month.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Gold had eased 50 cents to $1,662.79 an ounce by 0041 GMT in thin trade.
* U.S. gold for February was little changed at $1,663.70 an ounce.
* President Barack Obama will host a meeting on Friday with the four top congressional leaders, a White House aide said on Thursday, as the president and lawmakers rush to break deadlock over the fiscal cliff days before a year-end deadline.
* Republican leaders in the House of Representatives told their members to be back in Washington from the Christmas holiday break on Sunday in case they need to vote on budget measures.
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MARKET NEWS
* The yen hit its lowest point in more than two years on Friday, on strong expectations of drastic monetary easing, underpinning Japanese equities.
* U.S. crude futures edged up to above $91.40 a barrel on Friday.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0745 - FRENCH CONSUMER SPENDING FOR NOVEMBER 0745 - FRENCH DETAILED GDP FOR Q3 0900 - ITALY PRODUCER PRICES FOR NOVEMBER . 1445 - U.S. CHICAGO PMI FOR DECEMBER 1500 - U.S. PENDING HOME SALES FOR NOVEMBER 1530 - U.S. ECRI WEEKLY N/A - U.S. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT RELEASES NOVEMBER BUILDING PERMIT REVISIONS 1930 U.S. CFTC COMMITMENT OF TRADERS DATA WEEKLY
PRICES
Precious metals prices 0041 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1662.79 -0.50 -0.03 6.33 Spot Silver 30.17 0.01 +0.03 8.96 Spot Platinum 1529.25 -1.24 -0.08 9.78 Spot Palladium 706.00 -0.25 -0.04 8.20 COMEX GOLD FEB3 1663.70 0.00 +0.00 6.18 4074 COMEX SILVER MAR3 30.22 -0.02 -0.07 8.26 277 Euro/Dollar 1.3242 Dollar/Yen 86.43
(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Joseph Radford)