Finance

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Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday:
Roblox — Shares added 7.41% after the video game company reported bookings, or revenue, of $774 million, topping the $766 million expected from analysts polled by Refinitiv. Average daily active users reached 66 million, a 22% year-over-year increase. However, Roblox reported a loss of 44 cents per share, larger than the 40 cents loss per share expected by analysts.

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Icahn Enterprises — Carl Icahn’s conglomerate saw its stock drop 15.14% after a regulatory filing revealed the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York contacted the company seeking information about corporate governance and other materials. Regulators sought information a day after notable short seller Hindenburg Research took a short position against Icahn’s company, alleging “inflated” asset valuations.
Rivian — Shares of the electric vehicle maker added 1.8% on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the company reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss and said it expects to still meet forward guidance targets. Its revenue of $661 million topped the $652 million expected from analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Airbnb — The vacation booking stock plummeted 10.92% the day after the company shared a soft outlook. While Airbnb beat top-and-bottom line expectations for the first quarter, it warned of lower average daily rates in the second quarter and slower growth in nights booked compared to a year ago.
Twilio — Shares sank 12.64%. On Tuesday, the software company announced its revenue forecast for the second quarter, which came in lighter than expected. Twilio anticipates between $980 million and $990 million in revenue, while analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting $1.05 billion in revenue.
Syneos Health — The stock popped 8.84% after news that it will be acquired by a consortium of private equity firms, including Elliott Investment Management and Veritas Capital. The group will pay $43 a share.

Dutch Bros — Shares of the drive-through coffee chain dropped 11.96%. On Tuesday, the company reported same-store sales and revenue for the first quarter missed analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet.
Celsius Holdings — Shares jumped 19.76%. On Tuesday, the energy drink company posted earnings per share of 40 cents for the first quarter, more than doubling the 19 cents per share expected from analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue also beat analysts’ expectations. Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy from neutral as a result.
Occidental Petroleum — The oil giant’s stock dipped 3.58%. On Tuesday, Occidental posted first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.09, which is less than the $1.24 estimate from analysts polled by FactSet.
Akamai Technologies — Akamai Technologies jumped 8.44% the day after the cloud services provider reported adjusted earnings of $1.40, greater than analysts’ calls for $1.32 per share, according to FactSet. The company posted revenue of $915.7 million, higher than expectations of $910.5 million. Akamai’s CEO, Dr. Tom Leighton, said the firm had “a strong start to 2023,” while reaching a “significant milestone during the first quarter when, for the first time in Akamai’s 25-year history, security became our largest revenue stream.”
First Citizens BancShares – Shares of the bank advanced 7.45% after the company posted financial results for the first quarter, which included an increase in deposits, thanks in part to the $49.26 billion it acquired from Silicon Valley Bank in March.
Topgolf Callaway Brands – Shares of the golf company tumbled 13.12%. On Tuesday, Topgolf lowered its earnings per share guidance for the full year, which is now below analysts’ estimates, according to FactSet.
Rockwell Automation — The industrial technology company’s stock shed 2.76% following a report in The Wall Street Journal that said the Biden administration is investigating whether the industrial technology company exposed U.S. military, infrastructure and government assets through one of its facilities in China. Rockwell Automation told CNBC there has been “no report or other indication that these practices and protocols have been breached or that any of our products have been intentionally compromised” and that it has not been notified of any investigation regarding the company’s work in China.
—CNBC’s Brian Evans, Yun Li, Alex Harring, Samantha Subin, Sarah Min and Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting. More

Most of the time, the impossibility of America defaulting on its sovereign bonds is taken as a fundamental axiom of the financial system. The country issues the world’s reserve currency, so investors always stand ready to lend it money. And if you are able to borrow more, you can pay back your debts.Yet Washington is once again reminding the world that, through sheer mulishness, a default is indeed possible. Every now and again—as in 2011, 2013 and today—America smacks into its “debt ceiling”, a political device that places a hard limit (currently $31.4trn, or 117% of gdp) on gross government borrowing. Congress must then agree to raise or waive the ceiling in order to prevent the Treasury from failing to make bond payments or meet spending obligations. This time round Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, has warned that the government may run out of cash and accounting maneuvers as soon as June 1st. And so on May 9th, congressional leaders gathered in the Oval Office with President Joe Biden for the very first stage of negotiation. They are a long way from a deal.Thus the stage is set for a game of brinkmanship in which a Republican-controlled Congress tries to wring concessions from Mr Biden, as the nation’s creditworthiness hangs in the balance. The two sides will almost certainly find a way to avoid catastrophe. But as Washington’s staring contest intensifies, Wall Street’s finest are less inclined to get involved. The merest whiff of a default has already set traders to work finding a way to protect their investments.To understand why, consider what a default would mean. Short-term Treasuries, or “t-bills”, are the closest thing there is to a risk-free asset. This makes them a favourite of corporate cash managers (who want an ultra-safe return) and any trader needing to post collateral (which must hold its value and be easy to sell). If the government stiffs corporate treasurers, companies will miss payments to one another and the wheels of commerce will grind to an agonising halt. Make traders’ collateral vanish, and financial contracts of all stripes will start to fall apart, unleashing chaos in global markets.Small wonder, then, that investors are rushing to protect themselves. A clamour for t-bills maturing before any possible default has given rise to wild swings in the yield of the world’s safest asset. One-month bills yielded 4.7% at the start of April. Over the next three weeks that fell to 3.4%, even as the Federal Reserve prepared to raise its interest rate to 5-5.25%. But one-month bills now mature after June 1st, when the Treasury might have exhausted its cash. And so demand has cratered, with their yield soaring by more than two percentage points in a matter of weeks. One trading boss describes having her team attempt to manually override their settlement software, in order to ensure that bills which mature without being paid do not simply vanish from the system.Longer-term Treasuries have so far seemed safer, under the assumption that an actual default would shock politicians out of their stubbornness, and would be quickly rectified. Yet even they are not immune. The cost to insure five-year Treasuries against default, once the very definition of throwing away money, has quadrupled over the past 12 months (a fact admittedly explained in part by the market’s lack of liquidity).What next? If you think there is no chance of Washington careening over the precipice, it is time to snap up t-bills at a discount and sell pointless bond insurance to the nervous. But even if you think this, you might pause. Since the Treasury would have run down its cash reserves to virtually nothing, a deal would be followed by a glut of issuance to rebuild the buffer. Even the best-case scenario, in other words, would drain liquidity from the market and may push yields higher.The stockmarket, meanwhile, looks shaky either way. Analysts at pimco, an asset manager, note that over the past dozen years, the s&p 500 index has fallen by an average of 6.5% in the month running up to a debt-ceiling deadline—even though these have always been met. Under a default it would fare much worse. In 2013, during a previous debt-ceiling stand-off, Fed officials simulated the effects of a month-long default. They estimated that stock prices would fall by 30% and the dollar by 10%.In the meantime, expect traders to get even more jittery. America’s politics will prevent an early deal, and it could well take the markets freaking out to force one at all. Default remains the least likely outcome. But as investors are acutely aware, it is no longer unthinkable. ■ More

Carl Icahn speaking at Delivering Alpha in New York on Sept. 13, 2016.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Icahn Enterprises, Carl Icahn’s conglomerate, saw its stock drop again Wednesday after a disclosure showed federal investigators are seeking information regarding its corporate governance.
The shares fell 15.1% Wednesday, following a near 25% loss last week. A regulatory filing revealed the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York contacted Icahn Enterprises last Wednesday seeking information about corporate governance, capitalization, securities offerings, dividends, valuation, marketing materials, due diligence and other materials.

Investigators sought information a day after notable short seller Hindenburg Research took a short position against Icahn’s company. Hindenburg alleged “inflated” asset valuations last Tuesday, among other reasons, for what it says is an unusually high net asset value premium in shares of the publicly traded holding company.

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Icahn Enterprises

“The U.S. Attorney’s office has not made any claims or allegations against us or Mr. Icahn with respect to the foregoing inquiry,” Icahn Enterprises said in the 10-Q filing.
In a separate statement, the company called Hindenburg’s report “misleading and self-serving,” saying the Nathan Anderson-led firm used tactics of “wantonly destroying property and harming innocent civilians.”
“Mr. Anderson’s modus operandi is to launch disinformation campaigns to distort companies’ images, damage their reputations and bleed the hard-earned savings of individual investors,” Icahn Enterprises said. “But, unlike many of its victims, we will not stand by idly. We intend to take all appropriate steps to protect our unitholders and fight back.”
Icahn, the most well-known corporate raider in history, made his name after pulling off a hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines in the 1980s, stripping the company of its assets. Most recently, the billionaire investor has engaged in activist investing in McDonald’s and biotech firm Illumina.

Headquartered in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Icahn Enterprises is a holding company that invests in myriad businesses including energy, automotive, food packaging, metals and real estate.
Patrick Gadson, co-head of the shareholder activism practice at Vinson & Elkins, said there are a few ways Icahn can fight back and control the damage from here.
“He could use share repurchases or unit repurchases to create a floor in the stock by lowering the outstanding share count,” Gadson told CNBC. “That could be useful in stabilizing the stock price, and it would be painful for the shorts.”
Additionally, Gadson said there could be a high-profile third-party investor who could come out supportive of Icahn, which could also improve investor sentiment.
Icahn said that his firm’s performance has been lower than its historical averages and that’s mainly because of its bearish view on the market.
“We recently have taken steps to reduce the short positions in our hedge book and concentrate for the most part on activism, which has served us so well in the past,” Icahn said. “We believe our existing portfolio has considerable upside potential over the coming years.”
Shares of Icahn Enterprises are now down more than 36% year to date. More

The consumer price index rose 4.9% in April 2023, the smallest increase in two years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday in a monthly inflation report.
Inflation readings have weakened for 10 consecutive months, from its peak in June 2022.
Households seem to be getting relief in staple categories such as food, energy and housing.

A shopper in Greenville, New York, April 30, 2023.
Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Inflation in April notched its lowest reading in two years, as price pressures for consumers continue to moderate from multidecade highs and costs for household staples appear to be in retreat.
The consumer price index, a key barometer of inflation, increased 4.9% in April versus a year ago. That is the smallest annual reading since April 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, said Wednesday.

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The index also fell from 5% in March, marking the 10th consecutive month of declines.
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“Increasingly, we can be confident that inflation is coming back in” to target, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.
Inflation measures how quickly prices are changing across the U.S. economy. The CPI measures anything from fruit and vegetable prices to those for a haircut or concert ticket.

Since the CPI reading was a positive number in April, it means consumers didn’t see prices falling, in a broad sense. But it shows the rate at which they’re rising has slowed significantly from the 9.1% peak in June 2022.

Policymakers aim to keep inflation at about 2% a year. It may take another year or so to reach that target, but “we’re definitively headed in that direction,” Zandi said.

Where consumers saw prices fall in April

Consumers saw average prices decline outright in April in certain categories.
Grocery prices, for example, retreated 0.2% during the month, following a 0.3% decrease in March. This trend should continue as supply chains continue to normalize, as do costs for labor and diesel, a key input for transportation from farm to shelf, economists said.
Monthly prices also declined for airline fares, new cars, hotels and household energy (such as electricity, fuel oil and utility gas service), among others.

Where consumers saw prices rise in April

On the flip side, notable increases in monthly prices occurred in categories such as shelter, used cars and trucks, motor vehicle insurance, recreation and personal care, according to the BLS.
Gasoline prices also jumped 3% in April relative to March, though are down 12% in the last 12 months.
Housing, the largest component of the average household’s budget, was the largest contributor to inflation in April, the BLS said. Shelter costs rose 0.4% in April relative to the prior month, a decrease from 0.6% in March.
However, average rents have moderated or even decreased over the past six months, a trend that will soon be reflected in lower inflation readings for shelter, since those price dynamics typically take several months to feed through into federal data, economists said.

“It looks like inflation in the [shelter] category has peaked,” Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said.
Overall, households are faring much better than they were months ago relative to inflation in staples such as food, energy and housing, according to Zandi.
“Gas prices are way down from where they were a year ago,” he said. “Food prices are no longer rising quickly.”
“And rents are now flat to down,” Zandi added. “Those are the key items in people’s budget and all of them feel pretty good at this point in time.”

Why inflation surged to multidecade highs

Consumer prices began rising rapidly in early 2021 as the U.S. economy started to reopen after the pandemic-related shutdown. Americans unleashed a flurry of pent-up demand for dining out, entertainment and vacations, aided by savings amassed from government relief.
Meanwhile, the rapid economic restart snarled global supply chains, a dynamic exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In other words, supply couldn’t keep up with consumers’ willingness to spend.
Inflation, which increased in economies around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic era, was initially siloed in categories of physical goods such as used cars and trucks. But the dynamic has morphed.
Now, it’s largely being driven by the labor market, not a shortage of physical goods, economists said.

Increasingly, we can be confident that inflation is coming back in.

Mark Zandi
chief economist of Moody’s Analytics

As the economy reopened after the pandemic, businesses rushed to hire workers and job openings surged to record highs. That demand tilted the job market in favor of workers, who had ample opportunities. They saw wages grow at their fastest pace in decades as employers competed to hire them.
That strong wage growth has nudged employers, especially labor-intensive service businesses, to raise their prices, economists said.
But now, “the earlier extreme levels of excess demand for workers are easing,” Hunter said.
Those labor-market dynamics should continue to put downward pressure on overall inflation.
“The trend from here is definitely looking a lot better,” Hunter said. “I think we’re finally seeing clear signs of progress.” More

Apple’s first physical retail store is located in the populous city of Mumbai.
Punit Paranjpe | Afp | Getty Images

Dimensional’s Matrix Book is an annual review of global returns that highlight the power of compound investing. It’s a fascinating document: you can look up the compounded growth rate of the S&P 500 for every year going back to 1926. 
Buried on page 74 is a chapter on “World Equity Market Capitalization,” listing the market capitalization of most of the world, country by country. No surprise, the U.S. is the global leader in stock market value. The $40 trillion in stock market wealth in the U.S. is almost 60% of the value of all the equities in the world. 

Global market capitalization, by country
(in trillions, with % of global share)

U.S.                         $40 trillion  (59%)
Japan                     $4.1t (6%)
United Kingdom   $2.6t (4%)
China                     $2.5t (4%)
Canada                  $2.1t (3%)
France                    $1.8t (3%)
Switzerland           $1.6t (2%)
India                       $1.4t (2%)
Australia                $1.4t (2%)
Germany                $1.3t (2%)

Source:  Dimensional Funds, 2023 Matrix Book
Here’s where it gets fun. My friend Ben Carlson pointed out that Apple’s current market capitalization of about $2.7 trillion this week exceeds the entire market capitalization of the United Kingdom, the third biggest stock market in the world. 
Apple vs. the world

(market capitalization)

Apple:                    $2.7 trillion
UK :                        $2.6t  (595 companies)
France:                  $1.8t  (235 companies)
India:                     $1.4t  (1,242 companies)
Germany:              $1.3t  (255 companies)

Source:  Dimensional Funds, 2023 Matrix Book 
Not only is Apple bigger than all 595 companies that list in the United Kingdom, it’s bigger than all the companies in France (235 companies), and India (1,242 companies). 
Apple is twice the size of Germany’s entire stock market, with 255 companies. 
In part, this reflects the extreme values that are being given to companies that are: 1) successful, and 2) growth-oriented.  
That orientation toward tech and growth can influence the character of a country’s market. 
Germany, for example, is by far the largest country in Europe by GDP, yet its stock market is smaller than the U.K, France and Italy.  In part this reflects the fact that there are fewer companies listed than the U.K., but also because Germany has more value-oriented companies.  As a result, its market multiple — the price investors pay for a dollar or a euro’s worth of profit — is considerably lower than that of the U.S. 
Regardless: Apple is bigger than the entire U.K. stock market? Twice as big as all of Germany? That is amazing.  More

Annual headline inflation remained stubbornly above 10% in March, driven by persistently high food and energy bills.
Core inflation also remained unchanged, highlighting the risk of entrenchment.
The market almost unanimously expects the Monetary Policy Committee to opt for another 25 basis point hike on Thursday.
A majority of economists are expecting a 7-2 split vote to take the Bank Rate from 4.25% to 4.5%.

People walk outside the Bank of England in the City of London financial district, in London, Britain, January 26, 2023.
Henry Nicholls | Reuters

LONDON — The Bank of England is expected to hike interest rates for the 12th consecutive meeting on Thursday as inflation continues to run hot, but the summit may be drawing near.
The U.K. economy has held up better than expected so far this year, though GDP flatlined in February as widespread strikes and the cost-of-living squeeze hampered activity, while the labor market continues to look resilient.

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Annual headline inflation remained stubbornly above 10% in March, driven by persistently high food and energy bills, while core inflation also remained unchanged, highlighting the risk of entrenchment. The Bank expects it to fall rapidly from the middle of 2023 to reach around 4% by the end of the year, however.
The market almost unanimously expects the Monetary Policy Committee to opt for another 25 basis point hike on Thursday, with a majority of economists expecting a 7-2 split vote to take the Bank Rate from 4.25% to 4.5%. However, projections beyond that begin to diverge.
The U.S. Federal Reserve last week implemented another 25 basis point hike but dropped what the markets interpreted as a tentative hint that its cycle of monetary policy tightening is drawing to a close.
The European Central Bank last week slowed its hiking cycle, opting for a 25 basis point increment that lifted rates to levels not seen since November 2008, but contended that the “inflation outlook continues to be too high for too long.”

The Bank of England faces a trickier tightrope, though, with the U.K. tipped to be the worst-performing major economy over the next two years and inflation considerably higher than peers.

Barclays economists on Friday suggested that the MPC may follow the lead of its transatlantic counterpart and that a “new qualifier might signal that the end is in sight.”
The British lender expects a 25 basis point hike consistent with data and developments since March, based on a 7-2 split with external members Silvana Tenreyro and Swati Dhingra voting to keep rates on hold.
“We think the MPC will keep options open in a balanced manner, reiterating that evidence of persistent inflationary pressures could require further tightening, while signalling that it might pause if data comes in line with MPR projections,” Chief European Economist Silvia Ardagna’s team said.
“All this, and updated projections, should be consistent with our call for a final 25bp hike at the June meeting to a terminal rate of 4.75%.”
Updated forecasts
Alongside the rate decision, the MPC will update its forecasts on Thursday. Barclays expects a more upbeat growth outlook and shallower medium-term inflation path than in February’s projections, due largely to lower energy prices, additional fiscal support announced in the government’s Spring Budget and “more resilient household consumption underpinned by a tighter labor market.”
This updated guidance would enable the Bank to skip hiking at its June meeting and potentially move to hiking alongside each Monetary Policy Report (MPR) every three months, contingent on economic data.
“Thus, while our base case remains for a final hike in June, we see risks that they skip this meeting and deliver the final hike in August,” Ardagno’s team said.
Deutsche Bank Senior Economist Sanjay Raja echoed the projections for a 7-2 split in favor of a 25 basis point hike on Thursday, followed by another quarter-point in June.
He does not expect any changes in the forward guidance, and suggested the MPC would reiterate its data dependence and look to retain as much flexibility as possible heading into the next meeting.

Policymakers will be waiting to see how their tightening of financial conditions over the last year has fed through into the real economy. Services CPI (consumer prices index) and average wage growth will be of particular interest to the MPC, Raja suggested.
“Risks are skewed towards a more dovish pivot, with the MPC putting more stock in the lags in monetary policy transmission. Implicitly, this could indicate a preference for potential hikes during MPR meetings, giving the MPC more time to assess incoming data,” Raja said.
The central bank projected in February that the consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate will drop from the annual 10.1% recorded in March to just 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Raja suggested the most interesting aspect of Thursday’s report for the market will be any perceived change in the MPC’s confidence in its outlook, which will give the clearest indication as to whether policymakers believe they can get inflation back to its 2% target over two- and three-year horizons.
The risk of a dovish tilt in the Bank of England’s guidance was also flagged by BNP Paribas economists, who believe Thursday will prove to be the end of the Bank’s tightening cycle.
“We don’t think the MPC will signal as such, with the forward guidance likely to remain suitably vague about the future policy path. But risks appear skewed towards a dovish inflection, particularly given already-elevated market pricing for further hikes, in our view,” BNP Chief Europe Economist Paul Hollingsworth and his team said in a note Friday. More

Rivian electric pickup trucks sit in a parking lot at a Rivian service center on May 09, 2022 in South San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in premarket trading.
Rivian Automotive — The electric vehicle maker saw its stock jump more than 6% after the company reported a first-quarter loss that was narrower than expected. Rivian also said it’s still on track to meet a 50,000-vehicle production target for 2023.

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Airbnb — Shares dropped 13.3% after the vacation booking platform gave a weak outlook for the second quarter and said the company could have a tough time meeting year-over-year comparables. Airbnb still beat expectations on both lines for quarterly earnings.
Twilio — Shares of the software company slid 16% in premarket trading after Twilio’s revenue forecast came in weaker than expected. The company said it was expecting between $980 million and $990 million in revenue for the second quarter. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting $1.05 billion in revenue.
Dutch Bros — Shares tumbled 7.6% after the company reported same-store sales and revenue for the first quarter that came in under expectations. The company did break even for the quarter, while analysts polled by StreetAccount expected a loss of 3 cents per share. JPMorgan downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight as a result of the report.
Celsius Holdings — The drinks company jumped 11.1% following a strong earnings report. Celsius posted 40 cents in earnings per share for the first quarter, more than doubling the 19-cent consensus estimate of analysts polled by StreetAccount. Revenue also came in well ahead of analyst expectations. Bank of America upgraded shares to buy from neutral as a result.
Virgin Galactic — The space tourism company saw its shares fall more than 4.5% after reporting a widened quarterly loss from the same period a year ago. Virgin, which aims to fly its first spaceflight in nearly two years later this month, cited “increases in research and development expenses,” in a press release.

GoodRx — The digital healthcare platform lost 8.3% after giving weaker-than-expectation guidance for current-quarter and full-year revenue. However, GoodRx beat expectations for revenue in the first quarter.
Alcon — The eye care stock popped 5.1% after beating expectations on the top and bottom lines in the first quarter. Alcon reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance and said core diluted earnings per share for the year should come in a range that encompasses the consensus estimate of analysts polled by StreetAccount.
Rockwell Automation — Shares slid 2.8% following a Wall Street Journal report that said the Biden administration is investigating whether the industrial technology company exposed U.S. military, infrastructure and government assets in a cyberattack through one of its facilities in China. CNBC has reached out to Rockwell Automation for comment.
Halozyme Therapeutics — Shares of the biopharma stock rose 1.9% after the company reaffirmed full-year earnings guidance. That helped investors overlook a miss on revenue in the first quarter. Piper Sandler upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral following the report.
Roblox — Roblox shares fell 8.1% after the company reported higher losses per share than Wall Street had expected. Roblox posted losses of 44 cents per share in the first quarter. Meanwhile, analysts had estimated losses of 40 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data. The company’s average bookings per daily active user remained flat year-over-year despite reporting a 23% increase in hours engaged over the same period.
Occidental Petroleum — Shares declined 1.5% after the company’s quarterly earnings missed Wall Street’s expectations. The company also reported a year-over-year decline in earnings as oil prices fell.
Akamai Technologies — Shares of the cloud company rose nearly 5% in premarket trading on better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter. Akamai also raised its full-year profit guidance.
Affirm — Shares of the buy now, pay later company dipped 5.7% in premarket trading even after Affirm reported better-than-expected quarterly results a day earlier, with an adjusted loss per share of 69 cents. Analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting a loss of 92 cents per share.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel, Brian Evans, Hakyung Kim and Michelle Fox contributed reporting More

Many U.S. national parks broke visitor records in the pandemic era.
Some of the most heavily trafficked parks have instituted advance reservation systems to address congestion in popular hikes and roads. A few require reservations for full park access.
They include: Acadia, Arches, Glacier, Haleakalā, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite and Zion National Parks.
The free permits and reservations generally come with a processing fee of $2 and up.
There are a few ways for visitors to circumvent them if unable to secure a permit.

Bernard Friel/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

National park tourism is booming. But an idyllic adventure into the great outdoors can be derailed by overlooking an important aspect of trip planning: advance permits and reservations.
Some of the most frequently visited parks require people to book ahead for access to popular attractions like heavily trafficked hikes, roads and campgrounds. Some require advance tickets for full park entry.

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What this means: Travelers can’t necessarily bank on showing up spontaneously to a national park and getting the experience they desire. Fail to secure this paperwork, which is typically free but can carry a processing fee of as little as $2, and you might not even get in. Since reservations can be in high demand, it’s necessary to plan ahead.
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Advance permits are “one of the biggest things people miss,” said Mary Cropper, a travel advisor and senior U.S. specialist at Audley Travel.
The rules vary from park to park. Sometimes, there may be ways to skirt them for travelers unable to get one in advance.

Record park visitation spurred reservations

Tourists crowd into the Midway Geyser Basin on July 14, 2021 at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Natalie Behring | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Reservations are among the ways parks are addressing congestion.

Americans flocked to national parks in 2021 and 2022 as a way to get outside and vacation domestically during the pandemic era, at a time when traveling overseas was difficult due to health concerns and international travel restrictions.
Eighteen parks broke annual visitation records in 2021, according to National Park Service data. One — Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas — saw record visitors last year.
Overall visits to national parks jumped by 5% in 2022 versus the year prior, to 312 million recreation visits. While not a record, visitation last year was just over 5% off its peak in 2016, the year of the National Park Service centennial, said NPS spokesperson Kathy Kupper.
The National Park Service doesn’t forecast future visitation, Kupper said.

These national parks require vehicle reservations

Traffic heading into Yosemite Village on Oct. 6, 2019, in Yosemite National Park, California.
George Rose | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Most parks don’t currently require reservations for entry — though the number is expected to increase in future years.
Many that do have them began implementing reservations in the pandemic era, though some started before 2020.
Glacier National Park, located in Montana, did so in 2021, for example. Yosemite National Park, in California, did so in 2020 — though the park eliminated the requirement for 2023.
These reservations are assessed per vehicle. Parks require them for motorists to access certain roads, like the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier.
The following parks have a vehicle reservation in effect for 2023:
• Acadia National Park in Maine
• Arches National Park in Utah
• Glacier National Park in Montana
• Haleakalā National Park in Hawaii
• Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado
Zion, Rocky Mountain, Acadia, Yosemite and Glacier were among the top 10 most popular national parks in 2023, respectively, according to NPS data.

Permits may be needed for popular hikes, campgrounds

Horsetail Fall at Yosemite National Park
Phoenix Wang | Moment | Getty Images

Separately, Zion National Park in Utah requires an advance permit — available by lottery — for visitors to access its Angels Landing hike, among the most popular destinations in the park. Yosemite requires a permit to hike to the top of Half Dome, as does Arches for its Fiery Furnace hike.
Muir Woods National Monument in California also imposes an advance reservation for parking.
While Yosemite did away with its reservations to access the full park this summer, the park kept them for three weekends in February to help manage crowding during the Horsetail Fall event, during which the waterfall flowing off the El Capitan rock formation glows orange in ideal sunset conditions.

Language on Yosemite’s web site suggests broader park reservations may return in future years.
“Yosemite has been grappling with congestion — even gridlock — for decades,” according to its website. “We want to build from the lessons learned from the last three summers of managed access.”
Additionally, many parks require separate reservations to access certain campgrounds, or wilderness permits for overnight backpackers.
“If you plan to spend the night in or around the park, you should have reservations for lodging, camping, or backpacking,” according to the Olympic National Park website. “In the summer months, especially on the weekends, campgrounds and motels can fill quickly.”

How to make a national park reservation

Visitors can make reservations online at Recreation.gov or via the Recreation.gov call center at (877) 444-6777. Reservations carry a non-refundable processing fee, generally ranging from $2 to $6.
In addition to the processing fee, visitors must also pay a park’s standard entrance-pass fee or present a National Park Service annual multi-park pass.

Reservations and permits generally become available online months in advance. For those unable to score a reservation, parks generally release additional tickets closer to the visit date, sometimes just a day ahead. In both cases, they tend to sell out quickly.
There are many details that vary between parks. For example, some vehicle reservations are valid for multiple days of park access, and others for just one day. Some parks require visitors to book for a certain entry time, requiring motorists to arrive within a specified time frame.

Alternatives to some reservations and permits

However, there are some ways around reservations for those unable to secure one.
For example, vehicle reservations are generally only in effect for peak times of day, and for certain times of year. That means motorists can access the park without a reservation outside of those peak hours and months.
For example, Glacier’s Two Medicine vehicle reservation is in effect from July 1 through Sept. 10, 2023, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time. Tourists visiting outside those dates and times generally don’t need a reservation, according to the Glacier website.
Similarly, visitors can often bypass permit requirements if they’ve booked amenities like lodging, camping, transportation or commercial activities like tours located in the restricted park areas.
“A lot of times, individual permits are way harder to get than a hiking guide who has those [permits] for the whole summer season,” said Mike Augustine, a travel advisor and U.S. national parks specialist at Mountain Travel Sobek.
If you’re planning to visit a national park, check the park’s website for up-to-date information on reservations, road closures and other important information, Cropper said.
“Planning ahead for national parks is what will set you up for a really smooth trip,” Cropper said. More