Apr 15, 2020 - Economy & Business

Cruise company stocks are surging in April despite the coronavirus pandemic

Dion Rabouin, author of Markets
Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios Visuals

U.S. cruise line stocks popped on Tuesday after Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said in an interview that customers are already booking trips for 2021.

Flashback: The comments mirrored what Donald told me in an interview last month for "Axios on HBO" that the company had interest from potential customers until it shut down operations.

  • "All the way up until the day we paused people wanted to cruise."

The intrigue: Carnival's stock has risen 30% so far this month.

  • The stock rose 8% on Tuesday (a week after a 20% gain) and has seen a gain or loss of less than 5% on just one trading day this month.
  • Other cruise companies also saw major surges in their stock prices Tuesday, with Royal Caribbean rising 13.4% and Norwegian Cruise Line gaining 8.7%.

But, but, but: Carnival's stock price is still down 75% since the beginning of the year.

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 11:30 p.m. ET: 20,014,574 — Total deaths: 734,755 — Total recoveries — 12,222,744 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 11:30 p.m. ET: 5,089,416 — Total deaths: 163,425 — Total recoveries: 1,670,755 — Total tests: 62,513,174 — Map.
  3. Politics: Trump claims he would have not called for Obama to resign over 160,000 virus deaths — House will not hold votes until Sept. 14 unless stimulus deal is reached.
  4. Business: Richer Americans are more comfortable eating out.
  5. Public health: 5 states set single-day coronavirus case records last week — A dual coronavirus and flu threat is set to deliver a winter from hell.
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