(Bloomberg) -- Gold whipsawed after Russia said there are “no concrete plans” for a summit between Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden, hours after the White House said it had agreed in principle to a meeting to help resolve the standoff over Ukraine.

Earlier, bullion fell as much as 0.6% after statements from Washington and the Elysee that both the U.S. and Russia had agreed to the summit proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Gold then pared those losses to trade little changed after a Kremlin spokesperson said that while a meeting between Biden and Putin remained possible, no plans were in place.

Shortly after the week’s trading began, gold rose to the highest since June after the U.S. told allies that any Russian invasion would potentially see it target cities beyond Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Moscow, which has repeatedly denied it plans to invade, said over the weekend that its forces would remain in Belarus indefinitely. 

Gold has rallied this month as simmering geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia have driven haven demand. Concerns about Moscow’s troop build-up near the borders of its smaller neighbor have sparked renewed inflows into gold backed exchange-traded funds, while money managers trading the Comex have also boosted their net long bets to a three-month high.

The geopolitical tensions have outweighed bearish sentiment from the prospect of the Federal Reserve’s first rate rise in March, which could damp demand for the non-interest bearing precious metal by pushing up Treasury yields. Comments last week by Governor Lael Brainard and New York Fed President John Williams, as well as Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans, showed officials eager to get tightening under way, without seeking a super-sized interest-rate hike or a move before the next scheduled meeting.

“Once these fears disappear, prices will fall to $1,600 per ounce as the historic relationship with U.S. Treasury yields, which have risen by roughly 60 basis points already this year, reinstates itself,” analysts at Capital Economics Ltd. including Caroline Bain wrote in a note.

Gold edged down 0.2% to $1,895.06 an ounce at 9:47 a.m. in London, after earlier rising to $1,908.34, the highest since June 3. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%. Silver fell, while palladium and platinum gained.

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