What happened
On Monday, the cruise industry -- indeed, just about every industry related to travel and leisure in any way -- got knocked for a loop by worries that a revived coronavirus, fueled by its delta variant, would throw the world back into lockdown.
It took less than 24 hours for those worries to apparently subside.
So what
On Tuesday, shares of travel and leisure stocks rebounded strongly:
- Hotel, casino, and resort company MGM Resorts (MGM 0.42%) achieved a 4.8% gain by the closing bell.
- Royal Caribbean (RCL 0.60%) shares rose 7.7% on the day.
- Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH 0.25%) closed 8.3% higher.
What was the catalyst behind Tuesday's rebound? As Marketwatch quoted one group of bemused analysts who were posed the question, "The rebound reflected ideas the previous sell-off was overdone."
In other words, there wasn't a clear reason for today's bounce back.
Now what
What's interesting about today's rebound, though, is the net results after the past two trading days:
- MGM Resorts stock now sits 1.2% above where it closed on Friday last week.
- Royal Caribbean shares cost 3.5% more today than they did then.
- And Norwegian Cruise has not only recovered all its losses of yesterday, but also booked a gain of 2.3% from Friday.
That's right: It's just as if Monday never happened at all! So I guess the lesson for investors who sold in a panic yesterday is one of the oldest pieces of advice ever written: "Act in haste, repent at leisure."