Cruise Stocks Get A Headline Pop: PreMarket Prep Breaks It Down

Reopening stocks such as the cruise lines have been searching for a catalyst to instigate a move higher. Carnival Corp CCL provided the sector with one, and Royal Caribbean Cruises RCL and Norwegian Cruise Line Holding NCLH set sail with it.

The Catalyst: After the close on Monday, Carnival Corp reported the busiest booking week in the history of the company showing a double-digit increase from the previous record seven-day booking total between March 28-April 3.

It couldn't have come at a better time now that 22 of its 23 ships are back in guest operations across all its year-round U.S. homeports. Over the course of the pandemic, Carnival has led the industry in terms of restart and customer demand.

There was some skepticism from market participants that some of the bookings were actually pulled forward from the pandemic and not really new bookings. That included the producer of the show, Spencer Israel.

PreMarket Prep Take: When delivering the news, Israel was very skeptical of the release. "It is very light on details and the only detail in the entire release is in the first sentence," he said.

Co-host Dennis Dick chimed in: “Details, who cares about [that]? This a headline-driven market, and these stocks are moving higher for now.”

The discussion on the cruise lines from Tuesday's show can be found here:

Follow The Leader Up And Down: Off the news, all three issues caught a bid in the after-hours session that carried over into premarket trading. The rally in the regular session faded hard within the first 30 minutes of the session, however, and reversed course.

As of 3:30 p.m., both Norwegian and Carnival Corp are $1 off its intraday high, and the more volatile Royal Caribbean is $3 from its early morning high.