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For four years, I ran part of my family’s scaffolding business and had to plan shipping rental orders to our customers. When diesel and gas prices rose, that cut into the bottom line, as rental prices were pretty much an industry standard.

Since most rentals were long-term, the added cost was meaningful, but we eventually made it back. For shorter-term rentals, however, the added cost of delivering and picking up a very heavy product could eat up a significant amount of the profit.

In the trucking business, gas prices eat into profit margins, and intense competition makes it hard for smaller players to pass on those added costs to customers.

Diesel is the latest pressure hitting carriers that were already weakened by years of poor freight economics and rising operating costs. That has contributed to a massive wave of Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings.

“A new round of trucking bankruptcies has swept across the U.S. in recent weeks, with carriers ranging from small owner-operators to fleets operating dozens of trucks seeking Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 protection. At least 16 trucking, delivery, and transportation companies entered bankruptcy proceedings between late August and Sept. 21, according to federal court filings and carrier records reviewed by FreightWaves.

Rising diesel prices hit consumers hard, too

Higher diesel prices raise costs at every step of the food supply chain, from harvesting on farms to freight delivery that carries ​food to grocery stores, David Ortega, an economist at Michigan State University, told Reuters.

“The majority of our food moves on trucks and those trucks use diesel,” Ortega said.

Consumer food prices rose 2.7% year-on-year in August, according to the latest ​Consumer Price Index.

“Because diesel is used for many freight and delivery networks, higher diesel prices mean higher transportation costs for a long list of everyday goods. Some businesses have already passed on costs to consumers in the form of added fees on online orders and packages in the mail. And shoppers may see more and more sticker shock trickle down to store shelves,” the Associated Press reported.

The lurking consumer impact is that higher prices and fewer carriers causes a Christmas crash. Having less capacity pushes prices higher and not having enough drivers and trucks, could impact having packages arrive on time, as as well as store inventory.

Trucking companies hit hard by gas prices

Gas prices are bad, and they may get worse.

“We’re now in a troubling crude oil supply situation, the worst it’s been since several months ago,” Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told TT News.

The increases are dramatic.

“You’ve got diesel prices almost at double what they were a year ago,” Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, shared with TT News. “Your large contract carriers are somewhat insulated from this discussion about diesel prices. I think it’s an important distinction. But your spot market carriers are getting crushed.”

Smaller players, however, have been hit hard by this.

“Croke described small spot market carriers as enduring an existential crisis due to their limited cash flow and inability to add surcharges,” TT News reported.

The recent filings don’t prove that diesel prices caused each individual bankruptcy. They do, however, show how little financial room some smaller carriers have left as operating costs rise.

“The filings include Chapter 11 cases involving Globemaster Incorporated, Xoco Transport, Jett Transport & Materials, CLJ Transporting, Mill Creek Logistics-Illinois, RP Hay Hauling, Truckload LLC and Pacer Transport. Several smaller carriers filed Chapter 7 cases, which typically involve liquidation rather than reorganization,” according to FreightWaves.

The Chapter 7 filings include A&B Transportation Inc. of Lake Elsinore, California, Texas-based T Yorkman Trucking LLC of Midland, Blue Star Transports LLC of Garland, and Jackdollars Transport LLC of McKinney, a one-truck carrier company.

In California, Eulogia Logistics Inc. of Hacienda Heights filed Chapter 7, as did South Gate-based Rothchild Transportation LLC and Illinois’ C. Pride Transport Inc.

“The bankruptcy filings offer a snapshot of financial stress among small and midsize carriers. The geographically widespread filings show financial pressure continuing to surface across general freight, last-mile, agricultural, and specialized trucking,” FreightWaves reported.

Rising diesel prices have hit the trucking industry hard. Shutterstock

Trucking costs were up in 2025

RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino shared that trucking brands were already on the edge.

“Trucking can be a brutal business because there isn’t much room for error. A carrier can be busy and still lose money if what it earns on a load doesn’t cover fuel, insurance, equipment, maintenance, and labor. After a long period of pressure, some companies simply don’t have enough balance-sheet cushion left to absorb another bad month,” he told TheStreet.

American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) 2026 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking shows that this year’s increases follow a year in which trucking companies already faced across-the-board operating cost increases.

“The industry-average cost to operate a truck in 2025 was $2.336 per mile, 3.4% higher than the previous year and the highest per-mile cost in the report’s history. Excluding fuel, costs rose by 4.2% to $1.854 per mile,” the report showed.

Costs were up in all major line items in 2025, with the largest percentage gains in tolls (13.2%), repair and maintenance (8.6%), driver benefits (6.6%), and tires (6.4%). Only two line items rose at sub-inflationary rates: fuel and, for the second year in a row, driver pay.

ATRI, the research arm of the trucking industry’s largest trade association, has tracked carrier operating costs for decades.

That changed dramatically in 2026, as diesel prices surged well beyond the increases carriers had absorbed in 2025.

“Faced with rising costs and stagnant rates, carriers executed their largest reduction in freight capacity since the start of the freight recession in 2022 — reducing truck counts by 2.4% and leaving another 10% of trucks unseated on average,” the ATRI report showed.

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DoorDash shares fell around 3% on Sept. 23. This followed as the delivery giant faces a record-setting $131.5 million settlement with New York City.

The decline adds to a difficult stretch for DoorDash investors as the stock has fallen nearly 17% over the past month. 

Shares are down about 18% year to date and nearly 30% over the past 12 months.

The latest pressure comes after New York City announced a $131.5 million enforcement action against DoorDash over alleged violations of the city’s delivery-worker pay rules.

The settlement is the largest worker settlement in New York City history and the largest involving food-delivery workers in the U.S., according to the city. 

“DoorDash messed up,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote in a post on X (the former Twitter). “Every worker will be paid what they are owed, and every company will be forced to abide by the laws of this city.”

According to the terms of the settlement, more than $115 million will be distributed to workers, while more than $16 million will go toward civil penalties and costs.

And more than 260,000 delivery workers are expected to receive compensation.

DoorDash admits payment mistakes

DoorDash acknowledged problems with some worker payments in an unusually direct statement on Sept. 22.

“We screwed up,” the company said, acknowledging that some New York City Dashers were underpaid or received payments late. 

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DoorDash said the mistakes were not intentional and blamed many of the problems on technical bugs and complicated deliveries, including orders that crossed city boundaries or involved multiple pickup and drop-off locations.

DoorDash said roughly 264,000 Dashers will receive a payment under the settlement, including about 209,000 affected by missing or late payments.

The company said approximately $6.6 million in payments never reached workers, while another $5.7 million was delivered late. 

DoorDash said less than 1% of all payments made to New York City Dashers were affected.

But those payment problems account for only part of the much larger settlement.

More than $83 million relates to a disagreement between DoorDash and the city over how the company calculated compensation for time workers spent logged into the app between deliveries.

DoorDash said it believed its method of calculating that time was legal and practical.

But it has agreed to use the city’s approach rather than fight the dispute for years.

DoorDash stock is down 18% year to date.hapabapa / Getty Images

New York City increases oversight of DoorDash

The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection said its investigation began after workers complained that DoorDash had failed to pay them or had paid them late.

Regulators subsequently examined DoorDash payment records, analyzing more than 152 million individual payment transactions and 110 million working hours, according to the city.

The investigation also found that DoorDash excluded certain categories of trip and on-call time when determining compensable hours under the city’s minimum-pay rules.

New York City’s minimum pay rate for delivery workers is currently $22.13 per hour before tips.

As part of the settlement, DoorDash must provide detailed monthly data to city regulators for three years. 

The company will also make software changes and adopt additional internal controls designed to prevent future payment violations.

Workers will not have to submit claims to receive their money. 

The city said affected workers will begin receiving personalized notices in late October, with payments expected to begin this fall.

DoorDash said it has already fixed technical problems tied to the payment errors and had previously set aside the full cost of the settlement in earlier quarters, meaning the agreement itself is not expected to represent a new $131.5 million charge against the company.

This could matter for investors assessing the immediate financial hit.

Still, the agreement draws renewed attention to the regulatory costs facing one of the country’s largest delivery platforms.

The $131.5 million agreement is the latest in a series of enforcement actions targeting how delivery apps compensate their workers.

In 2025, DoorDash agreed to pay $16.75 million to settle a separate investigation by the New York attorney general over its previous tipping practices. 

State officials alleged that between 2017 and 2019, the company used customer tips to help fund the guaranteed amount it promised delivery workers, rather than giving workers the full tips on top of that guaranteed pay.

New York City has also pursued DoorDash’s competitors.

In January, the city announced more than $5 million in restitution, penalties, and damages from Uber Eats, Fantuan, and HungryPanda over alleged violations affecting more than 49,000 delivery workers. 

Uber also agreed to reinstate workers who had been wrongfully removed from its platform, potentially affecting as many as 10,000 workers.

Those actions come as New York expands regulation of an industry built largely around independent contractors, including higher minimum-pay requirements and new protections governing tips and payment transparency.

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Wall Street rarely pays for the same drug twice. Once a big trial succeeds, the stock jumps and investors start asking what comes next.

That question gets louder when a company’s biggest product is heading toward a patent cliff. One hit can’t fill a revenue gap measured in tens of billions of dollars, so the pipeline has to keep producing.

Investors usually get their answers on earnings calls or at medical meetings. Sometimes a smaller room tells them more. Private meetings between analysts and senior executives rarely make headlines, but analysts often walk out with a clearer read on what management really believes.

One of the biggest names in pharma just spent a day answering Wall Street’s questions about exactly that. The conversation kept circling back to lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the U.S., and to a drug class where a rival partnership already stumbled this year.

Now Bank of America has shared what it learned from Merck’s (MRK) chief medical officer, and its takeaways point to a crowded fourth quarter for the stock.

Bank of America met Merck’s chief medical officer and kept its Buy rating and $166 target. ricochet64 / Getty Images

Merck’s Keytruda patent cliff raises the pipeline stakes

Merck’s cancer immunotherapy Keytruda generated about $31.7 billion in sales in 2025, making it one of the best-selling drugs in the world. Its key U.S. patent protection starts running out in 2028.

The drug still carries the company. Keytruda and its newer under-the-skin version, Keytruda Qlex, brought in $8.4 billion of Merck’s $16.6 billion in second-quarter sales, according to a statement from Merck.

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Merck also raised its full-year 2026 revenue forecast to a range of $66.3 billion to $67.3 billion in that report.

Management says the post-Keytruda plan is on track. “Our belief in our ability to have substantial growth once we get closer to the LOE (loss of exclusivity) is as high as it’s ever been,” Merck CEO Robert Davis said in February, as reported by Fierce Pharma.

Merck has told investors its newer drugs carry more than $70 billion in annual revenue potential by the mid-2030s.

The market started buying that story in August. Shares jumped about 12.5% on Aug. 19 after Merck and Moderna (MRNA) reported that their personalized cancer vaccine, intismeran autogene, improved recurrence-free survival with Keytruda in a Phase 3 melanoma trial, according to Merck.

Bank of America keeps Merck Buy rating after top doctor meeting

Bank of America (BofA) hosted investor meetings with Merck Chief Medical Officer Eliav Barr on Sept. 22, and analyst Jason Gerberry’s team came away more convinced that the pipeline now drives the stock. “Overall, management conveyed a high degree of confidence across a catalyst-rich pipeline, with potential value-driving data expected over the next 12-18 months,” the analysts wrote in a Sept. 23 research note.

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The bank kept its Buy rating and $166 price objective, which sits about $15 above the $150.91 share price used in the note. That target is based on 16.5 times BofA’s 2027 earnings estimate, roughly in line with the large-cap pharma stocks it covers.

In my analysis, the modest upside is the most telling detail. Merck stock has traded between $77.58 and $156.92 over the past 52 weeks, according to BofA, so the shares have nearly doubled from the low.

BofA is arguing that pipeline data, not a cheap valuation, has to drive the next leg higher.

Merck’s lung cancer drug faces a big test in October

The drug at the center of the meeting was sacituzumab tirumotecan, or sac-TMT, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that Merck licensed from China’s Kelun-Biotech. An ADC uses an antibody to find a protein on tumor cells, called TROP2 in this case, and delivers a chemotherapy payload straight to it.

Merck is testing sac-TMT in 17 Phase 3 trials, according to Fierce Pharma.

Here’s what Barr told investors about sac-TMT, according to the BofA note:

Its linker chemistry creates a strong “bystander effect,” killing neighboring tumor cells without excessive toxicity

It carries a lower risk of interstitial lung disease, a serious lung inflammation seen with some ADCs

It combines well with Keytruda and other immunotherapies, while pairing ADCs with chemotherapy is harder

He is concerned about the toxicity burden of a competing ADC regimen that adds carboplatin, a platinum chemotherapy drug

That competitor points to AstraZeneca (AZN) and Daiichi Sankyo (DSNKY), whose Phase 3 AVANZAR trial pairs their TROP2 ADC Datroway with an immunotherapy and carboplatin. BofA expects data from both AVANZAR and Merck’s OptiTROP-Lung06 study this quarter.

OptiTROP-Lung06 already met its main goal in July. The China-based study found sac-TMT plus Keytruda delayed disease progression compared with chemotherapy plus Keytruda in first-line patients whose non-small cell lung cancer tests negative for PD-L1, the protein that immunotherapy drugs like Keytruda target.

Leerink Partners analysts called it the first direct evidence that an ADC could replace platinum chemotherapy in a first-line lung cancer regimen, Fierce Pharma reported. Full results will be presented Oct. 25 at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid, according to Kelun-Biotech.

Why a failed rival lung cancer trial didn’t rattle Merck

In June, Merck and Gilead Sciences (GILD) stopped a Phase 3 trial called EVOKE-03 that paired Gilead’s TROP2 ADC Trodelvy with Keytruda in untreated lung cancer patients with high PD-L1 levels. The combination showed “a numerical improvement” in progression-free survival but missed statistical significance, according to a statement from Merck and Gilead.

That trial used the same tumor target and the same partner drug as Merck’s own program. Barr “was generally dismissive of its relevance to SAC-TMT,” the BofA analysts wrote.

EVOKE-03 and OptiTROP-Lung06 enrolled different patient groups, which is the core of Merck’s argument. In my view, the full October data will show how wide sac-TMT’s edge really is, and investors will still want to see it repeat in Merck’s global trials.

For patients, the stakes are practical. I trained as a pharmacist before I covered markets, and platinum drugs such as carboplatin are among the chemotherapies that demand the closest monitoring for blood-count drops and nausea.

About 229,410 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society. A first-line regimen that swaps out chemotherapy could change what treatment feels like for many of them.

Barr also stressed giving oncologists flexibility on how long patients stay on treatment, compared with standard regimens that stop chemotherapy after four cycles, the note said.

What else Bank of America is watching in Merck’s pipeline

The cancer vaccine is next in line. Detailed Phase 3 melanoma data arrives at ESMO in October, but BofA said the bigger 2027 tests are mid-stage readouts in kidney and bladder cancer, which management views as key gating events for expansion.

Merck is moving carefully on “cold” tumors, the types that respond poorly to immunotherapy. Barr “expressed interest but little urgency until the mechanisms of benefit are better understood,” the analysts wrote.

BofA also flagged two near-term catalysts outside oncology. Merck expects updated Phase 3 ATLAS-UC results for its TL1A drug in ulcerative colitis in the coming months, and Phase 3 BRUNELLO data for its eye drug MK-3000 in diabetic macular edema, a diabetes complication that causes vision loss.

Merck is already hiring commercial staff for an ophthalmology buildout, according to the note.

The risks Bank of America sees for Merck stock

BofA’s Buy call comes with three named risks. Keytruda faces competition and pricing pressure, including uncertainty over how Medicare drug price negotiation will treat the Keytruda Qlex follow-on product.

The pipeline could also deliver less than the bank models, and competition could hit Merck’s other growth brands.

For Merck shareholders, the next checkpoint is Oct. 25 in Madrid, when sac-TMT’s lung cancer data goes up against a rival that still leans on chemotherapy.

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Big stock market gains create an illusion that selling anything is a mistake.

Jim Cramer challenged that instinct during the Sept. 23 episode of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” warning investors that discipline must override their strongest convictions. 

When a winner becomes intoxicating, protecting the gain can matter more than squeezing out the final dollar. His sharp take comes at a point after recent rallies have left investors sitting on enormous paper profits. That feels comfortable, but Cramer says it is when confidence becomes certainty that portfolios can become vulnerable.

He has watched that pattern repeat across the dot-com bubble, the financial crisis, the pandemic-era Nasdaq surge, and the 2022 technology rout.

Each cycle punished investors who confused a run with a permanent one.

Cramer’s warning is not to abandon winning stocks, but it’s about recognizing when success begins encouraging the behavior that can erase it.

Cramer’s rule: Discipline must beat conviction

Jim Cramer’s warning begins with a simple rule: “Discipline always trumps conviction.”

Regardless of the story, Cramer argues that investors need to trim when position size, valuation or market momentum makes the risk excessive. 

His formulation is blunt where he says that, “Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered.”

It’s important to understand that Cramer isn’t forecasting an imminent crash or telling investors to abandon winners. Instead, he’s warning that unrealized gains can encourage investors to ignore concentration risk, assuming the market will keep rising in a straight line.

Recent history supports the concern.

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The Nasdaq Composite more than doubled between March 2020 and November 2021 as low rates and pandemic-era liquidity lifted growth stocks, as reported by Nasdaq. It subsequently fell roughly 36% from its peak to its October 2022 low, punishing investors who never reduced exposure.

Cramer learned the same lesson after holding winning positions too long and watching major gains disappear.

“A profit on paper is not the same as a profit in your bank account,” he said.

Hence, regularly harvesting part of an oversized gain can preserve capital, reduce portfolio risk, and keep investors in the market when conditions reverse.

Cramer warns against faux diversification and blind dip-buying

Jim Cramer’s warning targets two mistakes that arrive together.

The veteran stock market commentator believes investors often mistake technology stocks for diversification and treat every sell-off as a buying opportunity.

Owning Meta Platforms (META), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), and Alphabet (GOOGL) may look diversified. Cramer calls it “faux diversification” as the companies are exposed to overlapping forces, including technology spending, advertising, consumer demand and interest rates. 

“They trade together,” he said.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) illustrates the danger. ARKK surged 153% in 2020 as speculative growth stocks soared, then fell 23% in 2021 and 67% in 2022 when rates rose and its concentrated holdings declined together.

Concentration makes Cramer’s second rule even more important: “Never buy all at once.”

A falling share price is not automatically a bargain. Investors must separate a “damaged stock” from a “damaged company.”

Zoom plunged from roughly $588 in October 2020 to the mid-$70s less than two years later as pandemic demand faded and Microsoft (MSFT), Google and Cisco (CSCO) intensified competition. Buyers mistook a weakening business for a temporary markdown.

Cramer recommends building positions gradually, ideally after researching companies before the market turns volatile. Smaller purchases preserve capital if the stock falls further and create room to reassess the thesis.

Diversification protects investors from being wrong about a sector, while staged buying protects them from being wrong about timing. 

Neither eliminates losses, but together they can prevent one dip from becoming a portfolio-breaking mistake.

 Jim Cramer warns investors that massive paper gains can disappear without discipline.Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images

Turn big stock market gains into lasting wealth

Cramer’s argument is simple in that powerful returns make risk management more important, not less.

Start with position size. 

If one winner has become an outsized share of a portfolio, trim it and redirect proceeds toward different sectors or a broad index fund. Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Netflix may be separate companies, but owning all four does not neutralize technology risk.

Next, stop treating every decline as confirmation to buy more. Before averaging down, ask whether the stock is falling because of market pressure or because revenue growth, competition or management execution has deteriorated. If the answer is unclear, buy in stages and keep cash available.

Taxes should influence how a sale is structured, but they should not veto one. Paying tax on a realized profit is preferable to watching a paper gain disappear.

Most importantly, create rules before volatility arrives, which include maximum position sizes, predetermined trimming levels, sector limits, and thesis-review dates.

Cramer’s framework sacrifices the chance of capturing every dollar. In return, it increases the odds that a winning cycle builds durable wealth instead of ending in an avoidable round trip.

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