Why Carnival, Norwegian Cruise, and Royal Caribbean Stocks Dropped Again Today
Cruise tourism stocks weren't immune from the stock market rout on Monday. As we sail into the final hour of trading, shares of all the major publicly traded cruise line companies -- Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE: NCLH), and Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) -- are low in the water, down 1.8%, 2%, and 3.2%, respectively, as of 3:20 p.m. ET.
Cruise stocks faced a whole series of "wall of worries" today. First, there are familiar concerns over the continuing pandemic and how it might affect cruise demand, and the CDC's warning still isn't helping with that. Last week brought worries that higher interest rates might make paying down cruise line debt difficult. Our latest concern is that Russia might invade Ukraine (again!), and upset stock markets even more.
Of the three, I believe that the mixed messaging from the CDC about whether cruises are safe, and the risk of interest rate hikes making debt refinancing more expensive, are the concerns investors should focus on. However, a Russian invasion of Ukraine wouldn't likely affect cruise tourism much at all in the Caribbean or even in the Mediterranean markets, but only in the Black Sea.
Source Fool.com
