By Asha Sistla

(Reuters) – Gold traded flat in range bound trade Thursday as uncertainty about the Ukraine conflict outweighed pressure from a firmer dollar, yields and the aggressive U.S. Federal Reserve’s stance against inflation.

By 0710 GMT, the price per ounce was at a flat $1.925.61 The U.S. was 0.3% higher at $1,927.90

Due to the breaking of the correlation between Treasury yields, the Treasury bills have been replaced by the war and high inflation. Brian Lan (Managing Director, GoldSilver Central), stated that gold prices are holding steady, but they have not been affected by high interest rate pressure.

This benchmark was close to the multi-year peak reached in the last session. It increased the risk of owning non-yielding bullion. [US/]

Many Fed officials said they were prepared to raise rates in half-percentage-point increments in coming policy meetings to tame inflation, according to the minutes released on Wednesday.

Following Fed Minutes, where the central banks showed that they are preparing aggressive measures to curb inflation, dollar traded at close to its two-year peak against other currencies. [USD/]

The stronger dollar renders gold less appealing to other currency holders.

Jigar Trivedi (a commodity analyst at Anand Rathi shares in Mumbai) said that there has been an “escalation of geopolitical tensions with Russia and Ukraine” as people wait for Western countries to impose new sanctions against Russia.

After accusing other countries of prioritising cash over the punishment for civil killings, which are condemned by the West as war crimes, Ukraine is seeking sanctions that will be economically damaging enough to Russia.

Spot silver dropped 0.5% at $24.32 an ounce. Platinum fell 0.5% at $948.34, and palladium rose 1.4% up to $2,228.