Macau casinos stocks retreat as rising COVID cases tarnish reopening hopes

Macau casino stocks saw selling pressure again on Monday after a flareup of COVID cases in China led to officials in Beijing and Shanghai ramping up testing policies again. While the number of COVID case in the nation is still only in the hundreds, there is no clear indication that the government will back off from a zero-tolerance policy anytime soon.

For Macau in particular, the local government will cut its quarantine to 10 days from 14 days starting from June 15, but that is still a tighter policy than some analysts and investors were banking on.

"China’s leisure sectors including Macau casinos enjoyed a good rally in past weeks as the China re-opening theme excited the market," noted Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Angela Hanlee.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) fell 3.13% premarket on Monday and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) was off 4.00%. Meanwhile, Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (MLCO) swung 6.67% lower during the early session. Those drops cut into last week's gains tied to hopes that the travel visa policy would improved dramatically.