SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold was hovering near three-month lows on Monday after large fund trades in the previous session rattled investors, despite the failure of weekend talks in Washington to reach an agreement to avert a U.S. debt default.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was down 0.07 percent at $1,271.76 an ounce by 0026 GMT.
* Gold fell over 1 percent on Friday to its lowest in three months after unusually large sale orders in New York futures prompted a $30-an-ounce drop in prices in about three minutes and a brief trading halt.
* Senate negotiations to bring a boiling fiscal crisis to an end showed signs of progress on Sunday, but there were no guarantees that the U.S. federal government shutdown was about to end or that a historic default would be avoided.
* U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated in October to its weakest in nine months as the first federal government shutdown in 17 years undermined Americans' outlook on the economy, a survey released on Friday showed.
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* Economic hardships brought about by Arab Spring uprisings have taken a toll on jewellery retail trade in Saudi Arabia's Muslim holy city of Mecca, slashing gold sales by more than half compared to the same period last year, retailers said.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.6 percent, or 5.40 tonnes, to 890.98 tonnes on Friday.
* The biggest bullion-importing bank in India plans to team up with jewellers for the first time to offer a gold deposit scheme, hoping ease of access and attractive interest rates will tempt people to part with their jewellery and relieve tight supplies.
MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday and the safe-haven yen rose broadly, foreshadowing a rocky start for Asian shares after weekend talks in Washington failed to reach an agreement to avert a U.S. debt default.
(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Richard Pullin)