Carnival Stock Slides as Crude Surges on Renewed Iran Tensions

Carnival Corporation Ltd (NYSE:CCL) stock is off by 2.3% in electronic trading as the cost of oil continues to surge following news that President Donald Trump has ended the ceasefire with Iran. Travel stocks—namely the cruise sector—are struggling, while defense stocks enjoy a boost. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude is up nearly 4% at last glance. Should these losses hold, it will mark a sixth-straight daily fall for the cruise name, adding more weight to its already steep 9% drop in the past 12 months. The $26 level could step in as support, most recently capturing an early June pullback. It's worth noting that short interest has fallen 16.6% during the past two reporting periods and now accounts for 3% of CCL's available float. It would take shorts less than two days to buy back their bearish bets, at the equity's average pace of daily trading. Puts have been popular for short-term traders as of late. This is per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.45, which ranks higher than 85% of readings from the past year. These options are affordably priced as well. Specifically, Carnival stock's Schaeffer’s Volatility Index (SVI) of 47% stands in the 27th percentile of its annual range.