Other Sectors Should Heed DHL/UPS Hookup

Eureka, something happened that should be happening: DHL is giving up and linking up with UPS (UPS - commentary - Cramer's Take). Why is this important?

Because so few companies have blinked in this environment. So many companies have dug in their heels that I wish wouldn't have: no mergers in homebuilding, no mergers in banks that aren't pretty much shotgun (Bear (BSC - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Countrywide (CFC - commentary - Cramer's Take)) and no mergers in the food or drugs despite tremendous raw costs, which could always be minimized by clout from bigger clients, and/or horrid pipelines like that of Pfizer (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take).

The combination of higher fuel costs with an inability of low prices to build share are the real reasons, I believe, that DHL has given up and thrown in its lot with UPS. Now, because of this consolidation, we could see some price stability between UPS and FedEx (FDX - commentary - Cramer's Take) as against the vicious oligopoly that we have had.

We saw UPS and to a lesser extent FDX react positively to this news yesterday. I think there is more ahead that's good here, but only if you can stomach some short-term earnings weakness that is a given. You can't have this increase in fuel coupled with the legacy of the fight among these players without having still one more shortfall.

Random musings: Banks won't give credit? Use your credit cards, with no risk to MasterCard (MA - commentary - Cramer's Take). What a great long-term thesis...

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in stocks mentioned.

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