Cruise line stocks suffer sharp losses, again

Shares of cruise operators suffered sharp declines for a second-straight session, amid signs of declining pricing and what that might mean for demand. Carnival Corp.’s
CCL,
-9.28%
CCL,
-2.65%
stock dove 5.6% in afternoon trading, enough to make it the second-worst performer among S&P 500
SPX,
-2.38%
components. The next two worst S&P 500 performers were shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
NCLH,
-9.17%,
down 7.3%, and Royal Caribbean Group
RCL,
-8.29%,
down 6.0%. That followed Wednesday stock selloff of 6.2% for Carnival, 4.7% for Norwegian and 5.1% for Royal Caribbean. Analyst Andrew Didora said in a research note Wednesday that all three cruise lines experienced “capacity-weighted sequential pricing declines” from May to June, which DiDors said could be explained by sale activity across most geographies. “Prices in the current survey are 1-3% below prices last month,” Didora wrote. “As a result, the strong booked position cited by most cruise lines seems to be eroding based on this data, and we expect this to be the key topic of discussion when CCL reports earnings later this month.” Meanwhile, the S&P 500 slid 0.8%, with Moderna Inc.’s stock
MRNA,
-9.76%
falling 8.4% to lead the losers.