Investing.com – Goldman Sachs’ optimism about commodities is stronger than ever.

The Wall Street company expects that the commodities index will grow by 8% over the next 12 months, and not by 5%, as predicted earlier.

In a note to customers, the company’s experts said that raw materials, led by crude oil, will show the best year in the last decade.

Goldman Sachs notes concerns about the slowdown in economic growth, and interest rates in the US are currently inappropriate, and under these conditions “demand remains stable.”

The company claims that the fundamentals of oil are “more bullish than ever”, triggered by President Trump’s decision to restore economic sanctions against Iran.

Investing.com – According to the report of the Office for National Statistical  of Great Britain (ONS) published on Friday, the value of the country’s economic growth for the first quarter remained unchanged.

According to the ONS report, in the first quarter of 2018, the UK’s GDP increased on an annualized basis by 1.2%, which coincides with a pre-determined value.

Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, GDP growth was 0.1%. This coincided with the experts’ forecasts that this value will remain unchanged.

However, the growth of business investment in the first quarter was revised downward to 2.0% on an annualized basis in comparison with the previously defined growth of 2.6%.

Analysts assumed that this figure would be revised up to a 2.4% increase.

Compared to the previous quarter, the growth in investments in the business was revised downwards to 0.2% compared to a pre-determined growth of 0.3%.

Analysts had expected that the growth in investment in the business would be adjusted to 0.2%.

Investing.com – The data released on Friday showed that the IFO business climate index rose.

The IFO Research Institute said that Germany’s business climate index rose to 102.2 in May after a value of 102.1 in April.

Economists predicted that this index will rise to 102.7.

The assessment of the current situation in Germany in May rose to 106.0 in line with forecasts.

The indicator for April was revised upwards to 105.8 against the initial value of 105.7.

Germany’s business expectations index, which determines the business climate in Germany and measures the expectations of German businessmen for the next six months, fell to 98.5 this month after a value of 98.7 in April.

Analysts predicted that this figure will increase to 99.5.

The business climate index is determined on the basis of a survey of approximately 7,000 German companies in the manufacturing and construction sectors, as well as in the wholesale and retail sales sectors.

Bloomberg.com — The yen dropped and U.S. stock futures rose after North Korea offered a measured response to President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a summit with that country’s leader. Asian shares were mixed, and crude oil held losses.

Shares in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea saw modest declines and were heading for weekly losses as trade tensions simmer and investors eye risks from emerging markets. Crude oil held losses after Russia’s energy minister reiterated that OPEC and its partners will discuss phasing out supply curbs when they meet next month. Turkey’s lira resumed its slump as traders weighed whether an emergency rate hike was enough to stem losses.

Geopolitics was back on the agenda with President Donald Trump’s letter to the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which he blamed the “tremendous anger and open hostility” in recent statements from Pyongyang for his decision. North Korea’s government said in a statement that it was surprised at the cancellation and remained willing to meet with the U.S. at any time.

Elsewhere, the euro remained weaker, alongside the pound, as questions swirl around the Italian populist government’s economic policies and Brexit negotiations loom large over British assets.