Is the cup in luxury goods half full or half empty? Conflicting signals from company results and mixed, if broadly pessimistic, signs from the US have prompted see-sawing sentiment among the world’s leading makers of expensive clothes, watches and jewellery.

The problem in extrapolating in the sector is the patchiness of the data. Many luxury goods labels remain privately owned and publish financial figures sparingly. Quoted groups are better, but can be too broad, such as Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton (LVMH), or too narrow, such as Bulgari, to provide anything more than either an overview or an insight into just one niche.