What happened
Shares of cruise line stocks Carnival Corporation (CCL -0.40%) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH -0.72%) both jumped more than 4% apiece in early Monday trading, and are still notching gains of 2.3% and 2.4%, respectively, here at the 3:15 p.m. EST mark.
So what
There's no obvious news afoot on either of the two cruise stocks, specifically, nor on Royal Caribbean (RCL 0.91%), which peaked lower than its rivals but is actually ahead of them right now, up 2.5%. Over the weekend, however, there was some news of interest to cruise investors in general: As CruiseIndustryNews.com (CIN) reported Saturday, investors are pushing the various cruise line companies to raise their prices in anticipation of a return to cruising later this year.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
With the pandemic still in full swing, and none of the major cruise lines cruising just yet, raising prices on a service that no one can yet provide may seem like strange advice. But here's the thing: CIN reports that cruise reservations are "flying off the shelves," and the cruise companies are enjoying "record sales volumes."
Analysts think this is indicative of strong pent-up demand and are encouraging cruise companies to take advantage of this surprising seller's market by raising prices. That way, once cruising does start up, they can maximize the cash they bring in to help pay back all the debt they've taken on to help them through the recession.
That sounds like good advice to me. If cruise companies decide to take it, that would be a good reason to become incrementally more positive about cruise line stocks.
