Cruise Stocks Taking A Dive As Harvey Slows Down, Irma Picks Up Steam

Hurricane Harvey's devastation of Texas is just the start of hurricane season as Hurricane Irma was labeled a Category 5 storm with winds of 180 miles per hour.

Cruise stocks have come into focus as Irma's path puts it on a collision course with the key hub for the travel and leisure sector, Bloomberg reported.

Irma is expected to make landfall in Florida this weekend after passing through the Caribbean, a region that accounts for 35 percent of the entire cruise industry's ocean-going capacity. On top of that, the three major cruise companies -- Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE: RCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: NCLH) -- are all headquartered in Miami.

Carnival and Norwegian's stock each lost 3 percent Tuesday and Royal Caribbean's stock lost 4 percent.

In the meantime, cruise lines are scrambling to re route ships in Irma's path and cancel others. But the financial impact to the cruise companies extend beyond lost revenue from cancelled voyages. The worst-case scenario involves damage to the ports and infrastructure that cruise ships rely on, Instinet analyst Harry Curtis was quoted by Bloomberg as saying in a note.

Royal Caribbean's worst-case scenario would involve a 10-cent per share impact to its earnings, while the downside to Carnival and Norwegian is five cents a share each, the analyst said.

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