Gold trades lower and Ford announces a spate of lithium deals

Gold dropped end of week after less than rosy economic data was released, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae. On Friday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable with correspondent Paul Harris. The U.S. annual core Personal Consumption Expenditures price index came in at 4.7% in April versus the consensus forecast of 4.6%. The U.S. central bank favors this gauge because the core inflation strips out volatile food and energy prices. Gold fell following the data release, with June Comex gold futures last trading at $1,946.80 an ounce. Data shows that inflation may not be coming down fast enough could increase bets that the Federal Reserve still has more room to tighten.Major gold miners are down for the year. Newmont is off 18% year to date, Barrick is down about 5%. The lithium sector saw a spate of deals early this week. Ford Motor Company early this week inked supply agreements with Albemarle, Nemaska Lithium and Compass Minerals.Albemarle will supply more than 100,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide for approximately 3 million future Ford EV batteries. The five-year supply agreement starts in 2026 and continues through 2030.Nemaska will supply Ford with lithium products, including lithium hydroxide, over an 11-year period. The agreement calls for the delivery of up to 13,000 tons of lithium hydroxide per year. Ford's big move comes after a lot of major mining deals before it. Early this year GM announced a $650 million deal with Lithium Americas. Ford has done other deals. A year ago signing an offtake with ioneer and Liontown Resources. Ford is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker