"What a difference a week makes!"
The quote from Jefferies analyst Randy Giveans pretty well summarises shipping's fate in US equity markets this week as 27 of 30 stocks under his coverage logged gains, one week after all 30 last ground. The average gain was 29%.
While it was largely to be expected that shipping shares would follow the broader market, it was a particularly good week for tanker stocks. Along with the Wall Street rally, they have the turbo boost of a revived freight market on the strength of Saudi Arabia's price war with Russia and a glut of crude cargoes.
Tsakos Energy Navigation led the way with a resounding 84% gain following a strong earnings report on Tuesday.
Also racking up huge gains were Herbjorn Hansson's suezmax play Nordic American Tankers at 64%, John Fredriksen's Frontline at 47% and VLCC owner Euronav at 42%.
Teekay Tankers ran up 35%, followed by clean market giant Scorpio Tankers at 34%, with New York's International Seaways and Irish products specialist Ardmore Shipping both 30% to the good.
"It was certainly a 'risk on' week with the broader market rebounding sharply," Giveans said.
The highly volatile broader market lost ground Friday to 21,636, a 4% drop, but still managed a 13% rally on the week for the best five days since 1938.
"All 10 tanker owners soared, with the average gain being 41%," Giveans said of the shipping results.
"Tanker rates continue to surge as the Brent forward curve contango continues to steepen," Giveans said, referring to expectations that crushed crude prices will grow stronger in coming months.
"As a result, there were more floating storage fixtures in the last three days than there were in the last three years. Makes sense as the Brent forward curve has been flat or in backwardation much of the last three years."
Yet it wasn't a great week for dry bulk rates, and that was reflected also in the week's stock results. Genco Shipping & Trading led the pack with a 15% gain, but the only other double-digit riser was Navios Maritime Partners at 14%.
Two of the only three price losers on the week were the dry bulk titans Star Bulk at 2% and Scorpio Bulkers at 6%.
In containers, last week's biggest shares loser overall, Danaos Corp, turned the tables with a 41% gain, tops among its group.
