Cruise stocks react to BofA note citing softening prices

Top cruise line stocks are in shaky waters in Friday's session after Bank of America analysts found cruise prices appearing "modestly softer" in June. Yahoo Finance's Market Domination reads the BofA note and the share reactions from cruise operators Carnival Corporation (CCL), Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), and Viking (VIK).

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

Shares of cruise lines hitting choppy water in today's trade.

Viking Holdings, Royal Caribbean Carnival Cruise Lines in Norwegian.

They all came under pressure after B of a analysts called out what they said was modest softening in ocean cruise prices during the month of June.

So it was interesting here, Julie.

I mean, the the companies obviously had been reporting early results.

And I thought, you know, the kind of message of the takeaway was it was broadly positive.

I mean, there's still lots of talk about record bookings, for example, but here comes B of A, and their team gets to work, pull out their pencils and then conclude that in June there was indeed, they say, modestly softer pricing, Um, in ocean markets relative to early May, the analysts saying 40% of cruise itineraries had softer pricing, compared with 33% in May.

Um, and you saw the stocks reacting to that.

I mean, on the flip side, if you dig into I mean, it feels like, Yes, there was a sell off on this, but also maybe there were other reasons buying the sell off.

I mean, if you dig into this and you can see from that chart.

It's really volatile, according to their survey.

At least if you look at the pricing that was negative, Um, in the past month, that 40% figure you get 33% the month before that.

21% 60% 24 per you know, it's it's it bounces around a lot, and it seems like that the cruise lines are very reactive when it comes to pricing dynamic pricing.

That's something we've heard from them before.

That they do.

So it's hard to know how seriously to take this.

I mean, one interesting minor note from this is that they also did a survey of Viking pricing for the first time.

Viking, the European River Boat, Uh, operator that just came public.

And they said there's less volatility in that market.

I mean, there aren't there isn't as much competition.

I don't think in the river cruise market, so maybe that's part of the reason why.

But it had flat pricing.

Essentially.

Also, that chart pointed out, I mean, some of these names have had some runs.

Royal Caribbean, up more than 50% over the past 12 months,