Spot gold prices ended little changed on Monday as pressure from signs of positive developments in US negotiations to avoid the "fiscal cliff" neutralised safe-haven bidding in the precious metal. Earlier in the session, bullion climbed on hopes that the Bank of Japan would use more monetary stimulus after Japan's next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called for the aggressive measure to boost growth.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,696.04 an ounce by 2:56 pm EST (1956 GMT), having traded in a relatively narrow $13 range. US COMEX gold futures for February delivery settled up $1.20 at $1,698.20, with trading volume on track to finish more than 50 percent below its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed. Meanwhile, silver briefly drifted below a 100-day moving average of $32.14 an ounce, a level it had held since mid-August. It was up a penny for the day at $32.16, off a one-month low hit earlier in the session. Palladium was down 0.6 percent to $696, while platinum was down 0.6 percent at $1,605 an ounce.

Copyright Reuters, 2012