I don’t think so.
3. Carnival gets sea sick again
Is it merely a coincidence that Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) continues to be the company behind cruise ship mishaps?
Carnival’s Dream suffered intermittent power outages on Wednesday night after its backup diesel generator malfunctioned.
Thankfully the ship was docked in St. Maarten at the time, and not stuck on the high seas as we saw last month with the Carnival Triumph.
Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) probably could’ve tried to sail back home to Florida, but it didn’t want to chance another reputation-crumbling blunder. It chose to fly everyone back home of out St. Maarten, giving passengers pro-rated refunds and a 50% rebate for a future cruise.
Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) may have done the right thing, but this isn’t merely about inconveniencing the passengers on the boat and upsetting the booked passengers that were flying into Florida to start their cruise on the ship this weekend by canceling that cruise.
Carnival’s going to have a hard time filling cabins unless it discounts aggressively here. That may be good news for opportunistic deal seekers, but it’s bad news for Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) and the cruise industry.
4. Renren & Stimpy
Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN) opened 4% lower on Monday. The leading social networking website operator in China posted better-than-expected quarterly results, but disappointed analysts with revenue guidance for the current quarter that fell short of expectations.
That’s normal. Mixed results where the outlook is a letdown will typically drag a stock lower. However, this item makes the cut because it’s Wall Street that made a dumb call.
Analysts were targeting marginal sequential improvement for the current quarter, but Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN) sees revenue sliding by as much as 10%. This would normally be a cause for alarm, but apparently the pros modeling Renren were asleep at the wheel.
The first quarter is a seasonally sleepy period in China, and things were compounded by the Chinese New Year coming in 18 days late this time around. Nearly every Chinese dot-com that has posted results this season has offered up guidance that calls for a quarter-over-quarter decline. The only two standouts are two companies growing substantially faster than Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN).
Wall Street had no reason to expect Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN) to buck the trend when every comparable company was issuing lukewarm guidance. Renren had a strong report, and analysts blew it. Fittingly enough, the stock went on to mover nicely higher throughout the week after the soft open.
5. We’re not doubling in Dublin
Velti stunned investors with a sharp loss at a time when analysts were braced for a juicy profit. Velti Plc (NASDAQ:VELT)’s top line also fell woefully short of expectations.
The near term is going to get even messier. Velti Plc (NASDAQ:VELT)’s eyeing revenue of $255 million to $280 million this year. Wall Street was perching itself closer to $340 million.
The pros are speechless. One analyst — Jefferies’ Peter Misek — downgraded the stock and whacked his price target from $8 to $2.15.
Mobile marketing hasn’t been the moneymaker that many were expecting.
The article This Week’s 5 Dumbest Stock Moves originally appeared on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Activision Blizzard. The Motley Fool owns shares of Activision Blizzard.
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