Why Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean Stocks Dropped Today

By now you've heard the news: Another bank is in trouble, with shares of Credit Suisse tumbling 20% (through 11:45 a.m. ET this morning) on accounting worries, and this on top of the failures of a pair of American banks over the weekend.    

Markets are all shook up, with the S&P 500 falling 1.4% today and the Nasdaq down almost 1%. Cruise stocks are getting hit particularly hard, with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE: NCLH) stock falling 3.4%, Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) (NYSE: CUK) down 4.3%, and Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) falling 4.6%. But what does trouble in the banking sector have to do with falling cruise stock prices, exactly?

At its core, this is a macroeconomic story. The more banks run into trouble, you see, the greater the "risk" that banks will start acting more conservatively. And while ordinarily you'd think that would be a good thing (aren't banks supposed to be conservative, verging on stodgy?), the downside of cautious bankers is that they might lend less -- and charge more for their loans.

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Source Fool.com