Like twinkling diamonds, recent figures from luxury goods groups have provided little points of light in the growing markets gloom. Tiffany kicked things off last month with a raised earnings forecast and holiday sales up 17 per cent year on year. Richemont, Burberry, Swatch and – late last week – Hermès and LVMH all followed with sales ahead of expectations in the final quarter of 2009 and moderately optimistic outlooks. The figures from Richemont and Swatch's upmarket brands suggested the recession is over even for bigger-ticket items such as luxury watches.
就像閃閃發光的鉆石一樣，奢侈品集團最近發布的數據為日漸低迷的市場提供了一些亮點。蒂凡尼(Tiffany)上月率先登場，宣布假日銷售同比增長17%，并提高了收益預期。歷峰(Richemont)、巴寶莉(Burberry)、斯沃琪(Swatch)、愛馬仕(Hermès)和路易威登軒尼詩(LVMH)緊隨其后，紛紛表示2009年末季度銷售好于預期，前景適度樂觀。歷峰和斯沃琪的高檔品牌數據表明，即便是對于奢華手表之類較昂貴的商品，衰退也已結束。