We’ve got a new favorite reality TV show: waiting for the weekly natural gas storage report to be released at 10:30 on Thursday morning, then heading over to the live NYMEX feed to watch the market’s reaction. Since we check a 15-minute update, we have to wait until 10:45, but the results for the past few months have been consistently entertaining.

Last week, a report that was a whopping 3% below expectation, coupled with a small downward revision of overall reserve levels, resulted in price liftoff at 10:45. This rally held up through Tuesday, then tumbled, which muted the response to today’s higher than expected injection. But down the price goes, nonetheless. It should settle back to around where it was before last week’s rally by end of day.

It’s interesting watching how a country which is increasingly looking at the world through a timeframe based on Twitter and two-minute Youtube videos is dealing with the fact that the economic downturn is not going away just because we’ve all become bored with it. While the signs and the trends are clearly pointing up, we’re not there yet. We are probably not going to be “there” for quite a while.

People continue to face layoffs, housing prices continue to drop, and GM is not the last company that will file for bankruptcy this year. All of these downward trends have slowed considerably, but it’s going to be a while before we replace the dreaded “r”-word (recession) with the eagerly anticipated “r”-word (recovery).

Meanwhile, the impatience in the natural gas commodity market is palpable. They jump, they come to their senses, then they turn around and do it all over againg.

There are plenty of indicators that gas, like the economy, hasn’t quite bottomed out yet. There are plenty of respected voices saying we will see the other side of $3.00 before the year is out. Which means our favorite new guilty pleasure should be continuing to entertain all the way through 2009. Don’t touch that dial!

At Cost Containment Intl., we’re content to watch others jump the gun. Our goal for you is a long term plan designed to secure your long term future. We all know where slow and steady get you. Give us a call.

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