The Energy And Market Page, T+255 -- October 2, 2017

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GDP now: Latest forecast: 2.7 percent — October 2, 2017

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2017 is 2.7 percent on October 2, up from 2.3 percent on September 29.

The forecasts for third-quarter real consumer spending growth and third-quarter real private fixed investment growth increased from 1.8 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, to 2.3 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, after this morning's construction spending release from the U.S. Census Bureau and this morning's Manufacturing ISM Report On Business from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

The model's estimate of the dynamic factor for September—normalized to have mean 0 and standard deviation 1 and used to forecast the yet-to-be released monthly GDP source data—increased from 0.04 to 1.59 after the ISM report.

Early late afternoon trading: Dow 30 is up 120 points. There are now 212 issues traded on the NYSE that have reported new 52-week highs, including BRK-B: Phillips 66.

 Original Post

Dow 30, new 52-week highs in early morning trading: 104, including -- GM, D. R. Horton,

• new lows: 10

Records: all three major indices open at new highs today -- Dow 30; NASDAQ; and, S&P 500.

ISM: September, 2017. Hitting new records. An incredible report. The ISM hit a six-year record in August, 2017, and now it looks like an 11-year record with the September, 2017, report. When I find a link for today's report I will post it. Yes, here it is: US factory activity surges last month to highest since 2004 -- thirteen years. The Trump rally continues. Let's see, we're almost into Trump's first year, especially if one considers the optimism he drove began in early November, 2016. One year. From the linked article:

U.S. manufacturing activity shrugged off a series of hurricanes and rose to the highest level in 13 years last month.

The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 60.8 from 58.8 in August, the highest reading since May 2004. Anything above 50 signals that manufacturers are growing, and the ISM survey shows they've been on a 13-month winning streak.

New orders, production, hiring and new export orders all grew faster in September.

Seventeen of 18 manufacturing industries reported growth, led by textile mills and machinery. Only one industry — furniture manufacturing — contracted last month.

GDP now. Most recent forecast will be reported later today. The previous and latest report was dated September 29, 2017: 2.3 percent: 

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2017 is 2.3 percent on September 29, up from 2.1 percent on September 27. Since the previous GDPNow update on Wednesday, the forecasts of the contributions of net exports and inventory investment to third-quarter GDP growth increased from -0.16 percentage points and 0.90 percentage points, respectively, to -0.01 percentage points and 1.13 percentage points, respectively. The forecasts of real consumer spending growth and real nonresidential equipment investment growth declined from 2.0 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, to 1.8 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively.

Coal: a great report for coal. Coal demand is going to surge over the next few years.