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Royal Caribbean sails higher after posting strong Q1 earnings and a surprisingly upbeat profit outlook

Folks are booking cruises no matter what.

4/29/25 9:33AM

Royal Caribbean shares jumped as much as 5% Tuesday morning after the cruise giant largely beat Wall Street’s Q1 estimates and raised its full-year outlook.

Earnings per share came in at $2.71, topping FactSet estimates and exceeding the company’s previous guidance of $2.43 to $2.53. Revenue reached $3.9 billion, slightly below forecasts but up year over year. The company also charted a more profitable path ahead. Royal Caribbean now expects full-year EPS between $14.55 and $15.55, up from its prior forecast of $14.35 to $14.65, as sailing demand stays strong.

“During the first quarter, the company took record bookings during WAVE season. Additionally, during April, the company’s bookings were greater than the same period last year,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement. “Bookings for 2025 have remained on track, cancellation levels are normal, and we continue to see excellent close-in demand.”

The update comes after a turbulent stretch for travel stocks, with tariff uncertainty and concerns over consumer spending weighing heavily. Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley and Stifel both slashed their price targets for Royal Caribbean, citing rougher economic waters, but stayed confident in the company’s long-term direction. The forecast hike comes as a record 19 million Americans are set to sail this year, undeterred by sky-high room prices and fierce competition as operators race to grow their fleets.

Royal Caribbean shares are up over 50% over the past year.

Matt Phillips20h

Oil settles Friday at highest level since start of war

US oil prices moved higher in afternoon trading Friday, sapping strength from the stock market as they posted their highest close since the start of the Iran war.

After another day where the Strait of Hormuz was essentially closed to global tanker traffic, US futures for West Texas Intermediate settled up 3.1% at $98.71 a barrel for an 8.6% weekly gain, per Dow Jones data.

American officials have discussed using the US Navy to escort tankers through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, but have said plans for such convoys are not ready yet. However, it is unclear if military convoys would bring an end to the war-related dislocations in the oil market.

“It could help,” Tom Liles, senior vice president of upstream research at energy consulting firm Rystad, told Sherwood News in a recent interview. “It could also go in a lot of different directions if a Navy ship is hit or if a tanker is hit.”

Oil Posts Weekly Gains As Middle East Conflict Drags On

Tasha Matsumoto

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Stocks post third straight week of losses as Brent crude surges above $100

Stocks wiped out early gains to close lower amid the ongoing war in Iran.

Matt Phillips3/13/26

Memory stocks rebound off last weeks losses

Memory stocks Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings rose again Friday, putting these crucial providers of chips for AI inference work on track for big weekly gains after last week’s steep losses following the outbreak of war with Iran.

There’s no obvious trigger for the move higher for these shares this week, other than a bit of a recovery in the AI trade more broadly — AI beneficiaries like IT cable and connections maker Amphenol and custom chip and networking company Marvell Technology clawed back some gains this week — perhaps due Oracle’s earnings earlier, and some mean reversion to boot.

Micron is due to report earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday, with the company catching a couple price target hikes this week, including one from Wedbush on Friday.

Sandisk is something of a different story, as its enormous gains over the last 12 months — roughly 1,200% — have made it a momentum play beloved by the retail crowd.

It was up about 20% this week at around 11 a.m. ET. And its nearly 170% gain this year keeps the stock on top of the S&P 500, in terms of price performance.

Luke Kawa

3/13/26

The S&P 500’s internals are awful... while it’s still less than 5% from its record closing high

The breadth of negative momentum within the index’s constituents is even worse than at the tariff-induced market bottom in April 2025.