* Speculators increase net longs in COMEX gold
* Gold may peak $1,546-$1,569/oz range -techs(Adds fresh comment, recasts story)
By Harshith Aranya
Aug 26 (Reuters) - Gold prices erased early gains on Monday,slipping from a six-year high touched during the session, assome of the safe-haven demand waned after the United States andChina indicated a possible de-escalation of trade war, that alsoled to some profit-taking.
Spot gold rose 0.1% to $1,527 per ounce as of 0822GMT, after hitting $1,554.56 an ounce earlier, its highest sinceApril 2013.
The bullion had hit this level after tit-for-tat tariffs bythe U.S. and China escalated trade tensions, and boosted demandfor safe-haven assets.
U.S. gold futures were also up 0.1% at $1,538.70 anounce.
"The main news is (U.S. President Donald) Trump hascommented that he is ready to negotiate with China, and Chinahas also said they want a deal to happen," said RenishaChainani, head of commodity and currency research at MonarchNetworth Capital in Ahmedabad, India.
"This has changed the sentiment in the market from risk-offto risk-on, and safe haven assets are seeing some profitbooking. This is a knee-jerk reaction."
Trump said on Monday China had contacted U.S. tradeofficials overnight to say they wanted to return to thenegotiating table.
Earlier, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had said that Chinaopposes the escalation of the trade conflict, a state-backednewspaper reported.
On Friday, Trump had announced a 5% additional duty on $550billion in targeted Chinese goods, hours after Beijing unveiledretaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. products.
Equity markets plunged in response, with the U.S. stocksslumping on Friday, followed by a steep fall across Asian shareson Monday.
On Friday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. centralbank will "act as appropriate" to keep the economy healthy,although he stopped short of committing to rapid-fire rate cuts.
The markets are fully priced for a quarter-point cut inrates next month, and over 100 basis points of easing by the endof next year.
Yields on 10-year Treasury notes dived to itslowest since mid-2016, from a top of 1.66% on Friday.
Lower bond yields reduce the opportunity cost of holdingnon-interest bearing gold.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback'svalue against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.3%.
Spot gold may peak in a range of $1,546-$1,569 per ounce,said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
Indicative of market sentiment, SPDR Gold Trust, theworld's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said itsholdings rose 0.58% to 859.83 tonnes on Friday.
Hedge funds and money managers increased their bullishstance in COMEX gold in the week to Aug. 20, the U.S. CommodityFutures Trading Commission said on Friday.
Elsewhere, silver was up 0.9% at $17.54 per ounce andplatinum also gained 0.9% to $861.
Palladium climbed 0.9% to $1,473.70 per ounce.
(Reporting by Harshith Aranya and K. Sathya Narayanan inBengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Rashmi Aich)