Wall Street sours on gold

Gold prices have dropped more than 10% during the last six months, and Wall Street analysts don't think a rebound is in the cards.

Wall Street is turning its back on gold.

Both Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank lowered their year-end forecast for the precious metal this week, citing an improving U.S. economy.

Goldman slashed its target to $1,545 per ounce for 2013, down from its previously estimate of $1,610. The bank also lowered its outlook for 2014 to $1,350 an ounce, down from an earlier forecast of $1,490.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank reduced its year-end forecast to $1,637 an ounce. While that's still higher than gold's current price, it's almost 12% below Deutsche Bank's previous forecast of $1,856 per ounce.

Deutsche Bank analysts said gold will be challenged by an improving U.S. economy and noted that the "apparent disregard" for risks, such as the events in Cyprus, suggest that safe haven assets like gold could remain out of favor.

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Gold price have dropped more than 10% during the past six months and are nearly 20% below their all-time highs above $1,900, reached in September 2011.

Goldman analyst Damin Courvalin said he's not expecting a rebound anytime soon. Gold settled at $1,558.80 an ounce Wednesday.

While the resurgence of worries about Europe's debt problems, particularly the Cypus crisis, and disappointing U.S. economic data, have pushed investors toward the safety of U.S. Treasuries, gold prices have been unfazed. In fact, gold fell to a one-month low just last week,  a sign that conviction for the precious metal is weakening.

Given that lackluster movement in gold, and Goldman's' expectation that U.S. economic growth will accelerate later this year, gold prices will skew toward the downside, said Courvalin.

While some gold bugs argue that the price of the yellow metal will rise as inflation picks up, Courvalin argues that catalyst is "likely several years away."