If you drink coffee, use gasoline, eat anything made from corn, or buy silver jewelry, you are in trouble.

As I write this on May 3, coffee is up more than 26 percent year to date. Gasoline is up more than 39 percent, corn is up more than 16 percent, and silver has ballooned more than 49 percent.

I asked my wife to stay at home, don’t eat anything, drink water and don’t buy any jewelry. Now see herein lies the problem. Do you think she is going to do that? Do you think any of us are going to do that?

———

Commodity prices in general have been on a tear. There are a couple of breakdowns but we will have to see if it continues.

Right now soybeans have not risen year-to-date, lumber by the board foot is actually down 20 percent, wheat is down more than 4 percent and copper is down more than 5 percent. Cotton has turned down to the joy of retailers but whether that continues or not is something we have to wait out.

Let’s wander around the commodities pit a little. Aluminum is up 13 percent, cattle is up almost 4 percent, natural gas appears to have turned and is up more than 6 percent, sweet crude oil is up 24 percent, pork bellies (bacon) is up more than 18 percent, and gold is up more than 9 percent.

I will venture to say that something has got to give. I’m not sure what it is, but we’ll see.

———

Oh yea, I forgot to mention, the dollar is down more than 10 percent, which makes foreign buyers of our good and services happy but not the American consumer. If you are traveling outside the U.S. later this year, you will feel it in your wallet.

Some people are not happy about a weak dollar. Think about the foreign companies that compete with us. They are really at a disadvantage. We can just snatch the business away from them.

Arguably our recovery continues to progress because of a weak dollar. Wonder if that is why we are not moving to strengthen it?

———

Let’s take a look at the stock markets. Unless otherwise indicated, my stats all measure from Jan. 1 to April 30.

The Dow Jones Industrial average is up 10.7 percent, the Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index is up 8.4 percent, and the NASDAQ Composite is up 8.3 percent.

Smaller companies are doing well also as the Russell 2000 is up 10.4 percent and the S&P Midcap index for midsized companies is up 11.9 percent. I like the Wilshire 5000 index of most stocks traded and it is up more than 9 percent.

Bond prices, I like looking at U.S. Treasuries, have been down for most of the year but an April rally lifted them into positive territory. The Barclays’ Treasury total return index is now showing positive returns, but less than 1 percent.

If you own an array of bonds, it’s possible that part of your account has not been doing well in comparison to the stock side.

We’ve all been spoiled by falling interest rates and bond prices rising. That has made it bad for new income buyers but good for people who already owned bonds.

By that I mean if you are a CD buyer, certificates of deposit, then you know exactly what I am talking about.

Banks are not aggressive with their offerings because they can’t be. You have to be able to make something on the other side to offer you high returns and right now banks don’t have that other side.

———

The foreign markets have been OK but somewhat lackluster. The Global Dow, not including the U.S., is up about 8 percent. Italy leads the way in double digit returns up more than 11 percent, and Spain is up more than 10 percent and that is it for double digits.

There has not been tremendous weakness in the developed countries with India down more than 6 percent and both Brazil and Mexico down more than 4 percent.

Our Canadian neighbor to the north is up almost 4 percent, and England is up almost 3 percent.

It is not unusual to see many of the foreign markets just trouncing the U.S., but so far in 2011 it is just not happening.

———

I lost the wife in the shopping mall the other day. She finally found me chatting with a young, healthy, attractive specimen of a female.

She asked me what I was doing. I told her that I knew if I started talking with that young lady that she would show up immediately.

She didn’t think that was funny.

Howie Pentony is a Saxonburg client portfolio manager.