Gold heads for weekly dip, platinum hits highest in more than a decade
Spot gold was unchanged at $3,337.59 per ounce, as of 0156 GMT. U.S. gold futures eased 0.1% to $3,343.20. Bullion has declined 0.5% so far this week.
The dollar edged 0.1% lower against its rivals on Friday, but was headed for a second straight weekly gain. A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced bullion more expensive for other currency holders.
"We are starting to see data coming in that is still supporting a rather vigilant U.S. economy and potentially market participants are still looking at a situation where we are not expecting a very dovish Fed," OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong said.
Data showed on Thursday that U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in June, advancing 0.6% last month after an unrevised 0.9% drop in May.
U.S. initial jobless claims were better than expected, dropping 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 221,000 for the week ended July 12. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 235,000 claims for the week.
The strong data showed the world's largest economy remained on a stable footing, supporting the Federal Reserve's hesitance to resume monetary policy easing.
However, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he continues to believe the U.S. central bank should cut interest rates at the end of this month amid mounting risks to the economy.
Gold, often considered a safe haven during times of economic uncertainty, tends to do well in a low-interest-rate environment.
Meanwhile, investors closely watched trade negotiations as U.S. President Donald Trump broadened his tariff war.
Elsewhere, spot platinum rose 1% to $1,472.20 per ounce, its highest since August 2014, while palladium climbed 1.4% to $1,297.78, its highest since August 2023. Silver was flat at $38.12.
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The increased investment in the facility comes as it is moving away from focusing on supplying rare earths for catalytic convertors, to instead focus on soaring demand for the magnets that are essential to electric car batteries, advanced electronics and defence now the focus is on recycling rare earths that are already in Europe. "We think that we can probably produce 30% of the rare earths needed by Europe just by recycling end of life motors and other equipment," says Mr demand continues to grow that will change, and more virgin material will be needed from countries such as Brazil, Canada and Australia. There are no operational rare earth mines in Europe. Projects in Norway and Sweden are amongst the most advanced, but its likely to be another decade before they are ready."I think it's absolutely necessary to have our own mines, not necessarily a lot of them, because we can have a mix, but it's important to have our own sourcing," says Mr is a complex process to turn those materials into the powders that are the end product of this requires approximately 1,500 processes, and given the unique capabilities of this facility, outsiders are rarely allowed in. This is due to concerns about rivals potentially gaining some of the knowledge that is currently otherwise concentrated in we've been granted special access to one of the separation rooms that are a vital part of the closely-guarded know-how built up since this plant started operating in 1948."The objective of the liquid separation unit will be to purify cerium on one side, lanthanum on the other side," explains production manager Florian Gouneau as we walk up a flight of metal stairs."It's basically like if you have a multi fruit juice with orange juice, apple juice, pineapple juice, the objective of the liquid separation unit will be to separate apple juice on one side, orange juice on the other side, and so on." The room itself is about the size of a football pitch, and home to row after row of huge metal vats within which chemical reactions force the different rare earths 40-hectare site employs more than 300 people. A vast collection of industrial buildings are joined together by an array of metal pipes moving substances through the processes. Significant amounts of chemicals are stored in cylindrical tanks, and give the facility a distinct smell that is similar to a freshly-cleaned hospital ward.I ask Mr Gouneau if he's used to it after working here for three years. "What smell?" he jokingly replies. The site is also distinctly noisy and warm as vents continually hum. 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It says Beijing's controls are "unjustified" and "intended to be coercive".On a recent visit to Germany, China's foreign minister Wang Yi said it was his country's "sovereign right", as well as being "common practice", to control exports of goods that have both commercial as well as military stance explains why securing access to raw materials has been at the heart of recent EU trade deals, such as the one it signed with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay last firms in the rare earths sector say they need more government support if they are going to catch-up with their Chinese Moreno, the CEO of Australia's Viridis Mining, says this backing, both regulatory and financial, "is the key right now". His business is developing a vast rare earths mine in Brazil, which hopes to provide as much as 5% of the world's rare earths. 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