Cruise stock surge toward the top of the S&P 500’s gainers list

Cruise stocks surged Monday, and were among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.05%,
in the wake of Royal Caribbean Group’s
RCL,
+8.00%
earnings report in which the cruise operator Chief Executive Jason Liberty said “we are past COVID.” Shares of Royal Caribbean’s ran up 6.9% in midday trading, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
NCLH,
+8.59%
hiked up 6.3% and Carnival Corp.
CCL,
+7.94%
climbed 5.2%, to be the second-third-fourth biggest gainers in the S&P 500, which slipped 0.2%. Royal Caribbean’s stock had dropped 4.8% on Friday, after the company reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and revenue that came up short of forecasts, and put into question whether the company will return to profitability for the year. But CEO Liberty said he believed the company was past COVID in terms of the overall impact on the business. The comments were made as new daily COVID-19 case counts keep falling while death counts remains stubbornly high, and as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is planning to scrap the face-mask mandate for students and school employees.