Market leader Carnival issued disappointing guidance during last week's quarterly report. Rival Royal Caribbean is running into obstacles in financing its next mega-ship. Norwegian Cruise Line wasn't in the news, but NCL hasn't been able to complete its IPO since calling it off last year.
Shares of Royal Caribbean coasted higher on Thursday after the cruise line posted an encouraging quarterly report -- and market leader Carnival followed in its wake. But it's when you dive deeper into the numbers that you can see how things will be getting even sunnier in days ahead.
All the smartphone hype now is about the iPhone 5 and the latest Androids. But once, it was the BlackBerry people couldn't live without. Well, Research In Motion is still making them, and folks are still buying them. How many will become clearer this week when RIM reports its quarterly results.
Forget black cats, broken mirrors and unstoppable psychopaths in hockey masks -- on Friday the 13th, the biggest terrors sometimes hit our wallets. No, the Great Crash of 1929 didn't start on a Friday, but a fair number of financial disasters did.
Maybe it's time for Carnival to beach its Costa brand. The cruise line suffered another ugly mishap this week when a fire aboard the Costa Allegra left the ship powerless on the Indian Ocean, stranding passengers for three days with no hot food, air conditioning or running water.
In the Mediterranean waters near Giglio, treasure hunters are preparing to dive after the lost loot of the Costa Concordia. But the riches that went down with that cruise ship pale next to what one wreck hunter thinks he's found off the coast of Massachusetts: $3 billion in platinum.
It's now been two weeks since the Costa Concordia accident off the Tuscan coast of Italy. That tragic event aside, cruising is still a remarkably safe vacation choice. What's probably not as safe is investing in Costa's parent Carnival.
Last weekend's Costa Concordia accident, when the Carnival luxury liner tipped over after running aground on a rock off the Tuscan coast, was a thankfully rare tragedy. But even one such event is enough to scare some people away from floating vacations. If you're not one of the skittish, that temporary slowdown in bookings is just one reason this is a great time to schedule a cruise.