Carnival plc (LON: CCL) share edged 2.46% higher after announcing that it intends to have 90% of its cruise ships based in the US operational by February 2022.
The cruise ship operator said it intends to have its entire ship fully operational by March 2022, when the spring season kicks off.
Investors cheered the announcement pushing Carnival’s share price higher, reversing some of yesterday’s losses.
Carnival plans to have at least 17 more US ships sailing by the end of 2021, while the Carnival Sunshine will resume sailing from Charleston on January 13, 2022. The Carnival Liberty will sail from Port Canaveral on February 11, 2021.
The company has cancelled the cruises to be made by three ships sailing from the US: the Carnival Paradise from Tampa, the Carnival Ecstasy from Jacksonville, and the Carnival Sensation from Mobile.
Christine Duffy, Carnival Cruise Line’s President, said: “We are optimistic that vaccines will be approved for children between the ages of 5-11 before the end of the year, and we look forward to welcoming more families back on board.”
Carnival’s last major announcement was the release of its Q3 earnings report, which saw its US business report a $2.8 billion net loss. However, the company noted that all the cruises it operated in Q3 were cash flow generative.
The cruise ship operator had $7.8 billion in available liquidity at the end of Q3, which is more than adequate to fund its monthly cash burn rate of $510 million for the foreseeable future.
From a technical perspective, Carnival shares have pulled back from their recent highs near 1800p. Traders looking to buy the company’s shares should wait for a break above the recent highs or a drop to the 1600p level where we have medium-term resistance.
Opening new positions at the two levels presents the best risk-reward setups for traders.
*This is not investment advice.
Carnival share price.
Carnival shares were up 2.46% to trade at 1690.8p, rising from Wednesday’s closing price of 1650.2p.
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