Hospitality Stocks Stumble Amid Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
Stocks tumbled in premarket trading Wednesday following news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with hospitality companies among the hardest hit within the commercial real estate sector.
Vacation rental platform Airbnb Inc. tumbled 6% in premarket trading as the conflict prompted investors to trade travel-related stocks, MarketWatch reports. The drop marked the fifth straight decline for Airbnb, whose stock price is down nearly 20% this week.
Other hospitality companies that saw premarket declines of up to 5% include Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Marriott International Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group PLC and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
All of those companies have largely regained their losses from this morning, with Airbnb up nearly 5%. Such was the case for the main U.S. indexes. The Nasdaq recovered from a 3% drop in premarket trading, with the stock up 2.4% as of 3:30 p.m. ET, according to Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 was up 0.5% at that time, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still trading lower, down 0.7%.
More volatility is slated to come for the hospitality industry, as President Joe Biden announced via Twitter Thursday he will “move forward on devastating packages of sanctions and other economic measures to hold Russia to account.”
Oil prices surged Thursday amid worries of higher food and fuel costs, AP News reports, but the impact of the sanctions on the commercial real estate sector largely remains to be seen.
In the short term, the impact may be negligible, according to Real Capital Analytics.
“The impact on commercial real estate will likely be indirect, as the effects of the conflict feed through into commodity prices, inflation, bond yields and ultimately perhaps economic growth,” RCA Senior Director of Analytics Tom Leahy said in a report. “The main mechanism is likely to be through higher energy prices, which add to the inflationary forces” being felt across the U.S. and United Kingdom.
