(Reuters) – Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises were down about 3% on Thursday after short seller Hindenburg Research said on Twitter it had bet against the cruise line operator.
“The outlook for ‘Royal Caribbean’ and the cruise industry is far more grim than other hospitality and leisure ‘post-Covid’ stories,” Hindenburg tweeted.
Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Shares of companies often drop after Hindenburg and other short sellers tweet research related to them.
Short sellers aim to make money by betting that stocks will decline.
Royal Caribbean’s stock dropped about 18% over a few days after the Omicron variant of the coronavirus roiled global markets in late November. Since then it has rebounded, even as COVID-19 cases surge around the world and dampen a nascent recovery of the battered cruise industry.
On Wednesday, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings canceled voyages due to rising cases.
Norwegian was down 1% on Thursday, while Carnival Corp was 0.3% lower.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week advised people to avoid cruise travel after launching investigations into onboard cases on more than 90 ships.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; additional reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengalaru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
