Gold Prices Have Been Declining

 | Jan 07, 2014 12:15AM ET

While stocks, futures and other non-physical assets are getting riskier every day, gold has always been considered a safe-haven asset. Even though seeing a downtrend these days due to low inflation in major developed economies, gold is still one of the major commodities for traders and investors worldwide.  

UBS Investment Resarch has downgraded its forecast for the average price of gold down to $1200 per troy ounce. They say since early 2014, traders and investor will start abandoning gold for riskier assets with higher profitability.
 
On December 15th, Bank of America claimed that the average price of gold in 2014 will be around $1294/oz, thereby rising from $1250 in Q1 up to $1350 in Q4.
 
Morgan Stanley's forecast is bearish as well. The experts say gold will continue losing value in 2014 amid the Fed's QE tapering efforts. The bank's average estimation is $1313/oz.
 
Goldman Sachs made the gloomiest forecast for gold. In particular, the bank expects gold to devalue down to $1050/oz in 2014.
 
Gold Prices in 2014
 
Other experts seem to have the opposite standpoint. The experts predict higher gold price in 2014 as the crisis escalates. For example, Jim Stincler expects $2400 per troy ounce of gold by the end of 2014.

Some more conservative guys expect $1600-16800 per troy ounce.
 
As far as independent experts are concerned, long-term forecasts for gold are ineffective since the market is subject to strong speculative tendencies while major market participants can move the price in the desired direction against all solid forecasts.