A rollicking day on Wall Street on Friday helped cap a third straight winning week for shipping stocks, with the average listing gaining 13%.
A surge by the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday on stunningly strong US job numbers helped push every major shipping listing to green numbers, capping a week in which 22 or the 30 names under coverage of investment bank Jefferies logged gains.
The week's only sour note saw a reversal of fortune for tanker stocks, which are easily the most widely traded shipping paper.
After two weeks of profits, tankers came crashing to a 3% loss, with the bottom 10 performers in the Jefferies index all in the wet trade. A stagnation in rates coupled with a spate of bearish analyst forecasts killed the momentum.
Frontline was the biggest loser at 11%. It announced a $100m at-the-market shares authorisation during the week.
But this was more than offset by a hot week for bulker stocks.
"Dry bulk rates soared, led by a 112% increase in average capesize rates. As a result, dry bulk equities soared with the average share price up 33%," Jefferies lead shipping analyst Randy Giveans said.
The top six performers in his table were all bulker owners, with Genco Shipping & Trading leading the way with a 47% jump. Diana Shipping followed at 38%, just ahead of Eagle Bulk Shipping at 35% and Scorpio Bulkers at 34%.
Like dry bulk, containership owners staged a comeback with a 13% gain. Danaos Corp led the way at 9%.
It was a good week for the gas sector as LNG names soared 19%, paced by Dynagas LNG Partners' 28%, and LPG carriers up 8% led by Navigator Gas' 12%.
The results came on a rampant day for the overall US stock market, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average crashed through the 27,000 barrier on much better than expected news on the US jobless rate.
The US added about 2.5m jobs in May, confounding market expectations of further losses of 8m and encouraging many on a quicker "V-shape" economic recovery from the coronavirus impact. The gains lowered unemployment to 13% from an expected 20%.
The Dow closed up more than 3.1%, or 829 points, to 27,111. The key index rose every day of the trading week.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index set a record high for intraday trading.
Jefferies does not cover cruise stocks, but the so-called big three of Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line all logged gains of between 15% and 20%.
