The Energy Information Agency released numbers for last week’s petroleum inventories which showed a build in crude inventories, the first in the last six weeks. Analysts had expected another drop. Consumption of gasoline and distillates also declined. Oil and gas futures fell on the news. This is actually a nice example of price elasticity of demand, assuming you care to be reminded of anything from those 8:00 am Econ 101 classes.  When the price of something (gas) goes up, people (those of us who drive cars) demand less of it. But from a “circle of life” standpoint, I can only think of my stomach.  See, I believe that one of the reasons that red-blooded Americans eat red-blooded beef is that, historically, cheap gas meant that cheap corn could be delivered to the feedlots to fatten up the resulting cheap cows. I ... sorry, WE all eat more beef as a result. That’s a lip-smacking example of efficient markets, if you ask me. Ok, Ok, you won’t necessarily see live cattle prices drop on the news, and I’m not firing up the grill just yet. But for you CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio contestants who are getting beaten up on your energy stocks today, you can console yourselves with the possibility of being able to buy more delicious beef at some point in the future.

COMS announced better than expected earnings last night, and the stock rallied to over 2.50 in overnight trading. But in the harsh light of day, traders were somewhat less than impressed, and COMS right now is unchanged from yesterday at about 2.37. Sorry, contestants.

Tom Preston

thinkorswim, Inc.

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