Cruise Ship Lines are having a great stock market week

Monday was a tough day for investors in cruise stocks. News reports that Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) (NYSE: CUK) subsidiary AIDA Cruises is canceling planned trips in early August due to lack of prior approval by the Italian government, that the Norwegian cruise ship MS Roald Amundsen reports 43 coronavirus infections on board and that Norway Limiting cruises for the next 14 days while investigating the outbreak reminded investors that the industry is still not doing well. The news sent Carnival stocks - and those of Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE: RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (Nasdaq: NCLH) - down sharply in response. Tuesday is a new day, however, and in early trading, around 11:35 a.m. EDT, all three major cruise line stocks are recovering slightly, with Carnival stocks up 4.8%, Norwegian Cruise stocks 4, 5% and Royal Caribbean Cruises' shares rose 4%. And Royal Caribbean could be the reason. In today's edition of Cruise Industry News, we learn that Royal Caribbean has successfully renegotiated three of its nearly $ 4.5 billion total financing agreements to "cover fixed costs and net debt through capitalization agreements ... through the fourth quarter inclusive 2021 ". In fact, it means that at the expense of the agreement not to buy back shares or pay dividends until Q4 2021 (which probably wouldn't have happened anyway), Royal Caribbean will be able to operate without fear until the fourth quarter of 2021 , of being declared bankrupt (and having to repay its loan) until the end of next year - giving the company additional flexibility in dealing with the effects of the coronavirus. And flexibility is the be-all and end-all here. Because the cruise lines operated by the United States on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control are largely limited to the port until September 30, nobody in this industry will stay for at least a few more months, possibly even longer , Earn money. For now, investors need to focus on just making sure they get invested in companies that will survive to fight another day. In that regard, here are the latest numbers as of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence: Carnival Corporation has $ 6.9 billion in cash and short-term investments available (compared to $ 22.3 billion in total debt). Royal Caribbean has less cash - but less debt - $ 3.9 billion for the former and $ 16.8 billion for the latter. And Norwegian Cruise has $ 1.4 billion to stay afloat and $ 8.8 billion in debt to drain the company.