Christopher Barker of The Motley Fool cites range of "macroeconomic developments and looming scenarios" that could send gold past $2,000

The price of gold and the number of reasons to own it are moving in opposite directions.

Gold continues to seek support after dipping beneath $1,550 per ounce recently, while current global developments and increasingly visible macroeconomic scenarios underlying the bullish long-term outlook for the monetary metal have only increased in number and scale. Given the most attractive entry prices that investors have seen in some time, let's have an updated look at the bullish fundamental landscape for gold and the array of seasoned professionals who have recently accumulated gold exposure.

Barker goes on to cite JP Morgan's trading losses totaling billions of dollars, as well as Greece's potential exit from the eurozone. Furthermore, "the entire global monetary regime has effectively descended into a perpetual contest of competitive devaluation." Meanwhile, The International Monetary Fund has urged the Bank of England to launch more quantitative easing, while Fitch has downgraded Japan's credit rating. "The watershed election of French president Francois Hollande places politicians on notice that 'threatening to inject austerity into a subsidized, stimulated, and data-massaged illusion of relative economic stability is tantamount to swift political suicide.'" On the monetary side, both PIMCO bond guru Bill Gross and Goldman Sachs continue to share my view regarding the inevitability of a third round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve."

Each of the preceding macroeconomic developments and looming scenarios bolsters the long-term bullish case for gold. Collectively, in my opinion, the full nature of our global financial predicament (and the alarmingly predictable policy responses to them) guarantees a gold price well north of my conservative $2,000 price target.

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"The summer months tend to be a seasonally low time for gold"

The summer months tend to be a seasonally low time for gold. We can't stress enough to take advantage of further weakness to buy.

The good news is that gold and silver both held at their key December lows. It'll now be important to see if they stay above these levels at $1,540 and $27, respectively. If so, it'll be a good sign that these markets are bottoming and the worst is over.

Use weakness below $1,600 on gold and $30 on silver to buy or add to your positions. This is one of those times that can be difficult, but we don't think you'll regret it.

On the upside, the metals will begin to look better above $1,620 and $33. Gold's fundamentals are solid, demand is strong, and it looks like this weakness will be temporary.

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Bullion's key support level holding above $1,500, they note

The technical analysis team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch thinks a month's long decline in gold is coming to an end.

Here's an excerpt from a note by Mary Ann Bartels and Stephen Suttmeier:

Gold has pulled back to test support at $1550-1500. This support is holding, which sets up gold for a rally. The downtrend line from the August/ September highs provides initial resistance near $1700. Chart resistances are near $1800 and $1900-1925. Our longer-term view remains that gold is in a secular bull market with upside potential to $2000-2300 to as high as $3000 in coming years.

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Partnership to "strengthen our physical presence in commodities," bank says

Deutsche Bank will join forces with London-listed metals refiner Johnson Matthey to clear and store platinum and palladium to build on its position in the physical commodities market, it said on Wednesday.

Germany's largest bank said it would offer storage for platinum and palladium in ingot, plate and sponge form for its clients, together with Johnson Matthey, one of the world's largest refiners and recyclers of platinum group metals (PGMs), which are used predominantly in catalytic converters to cut harmful vehicle emissions.

"Deutsche Bank is committed to continuing to build and strengthen our physical presence in commodities," sais Raymond Key, global head of metals trading at Deutsche Bank. "Working with Johnson Matthey enables us to offer greater efficiencies and controls to our clients for their platinum and palladium trading and storage."

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Combination of tax hikes and spending cuts would contract economy by 1.3%, says Congressional Budget Office study

A new government study released Tuesday says that allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire and a scheduled round of automatic spending cuts to take effect would probably throw the economy into a recession.

The Congressional Budget Office report says that the economy would shrink by 1.3 percent in the first half of next year if the government is allowed to fall off this so-called "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 1 -- and that the higher tax rates and more than $100 billion in automatic cuts to the Pentagon and domestic agencies are kept in place.

There's common agreement that lawmakers will act either late this year or early next year to head off the dramatic shift in the government's financial situation. But if they were left in place, CBO says it would wring hundreds of billions of dollars from the budget deficit that would "represent an additional drag on the weak economic expansion."

CBO projected that the economy would contract by 1.3 percent in the first half of 2013, which would meet the traditional definition of a recession, which is when the economy shrinks for two consecutive quarters.

"Such a contraction in output in the first half of 2013 would probably be judged to be a recession," CBO said.

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