Licencias comerciales sacuden el mercado

Slowly but firmly, the FashionUnited Top 100 Index keeps on

rising this week. It defends its position above other indexes including the Hong Kong based Hang Seng, which closed on Wednesday at 1,117.91 points, nearly 80 points behind the international market referential index. FSTEurofirst followed the Chinese reference from no so far, and nearly tied with the American Dow Jones.

Wednesday’s trading boosted optimism around the globe as U.S. stocks rose, sending benchmark indexes to five-month highs, and China’s record currency reserves set the ground for a spreading hopefulness in the economic recovery.

Once published that the owners of the NFL approved a licensing deal with Nike that will begin in 2012, athletic brands moved quickly. Reebok, which was acquired by Adidas AG in 2006, has held the license since 2001 so Adidas’s shares slipped 1.3 percent to 46.48 euros after the new was released. British JD Sports Fashion was the worst performer of the day, with a final loss of 12 points. In neighboring Sweden, H&M went through a tough day yesterday, losing 1.5 points, while the French PPR recovered its position within the index, gaining 1.25 points by the end of the session. Still in Europe, Danish IC Companys has been cheering its stakeholders for the whole week, with a sustained increase that yesterday added 1.5 points to the company’s shares value.

Aware of LVMH Group will report interim sales results for the third quarter today, luxury retailers gathered in the FashionUnited Top 100 Index tumbled. According to Canadian expert Paul Swinan, its results will weigh on all the names in the group. One reason for Hermes' high valuation was the fantastic results the firm posted in the first and second quarters, with high growth coming in China and America, despite the recession; even Japan thrown positive records as opposed to many consumer companies in the past two years. Following this analyst’s opinion, LVMH's non fashion related assets, which involves some media interests as well as selling Sephora at J.C. Penney, are key in defining the groups’ performance that dropped on Wednesday by 0.14%. French luxe conglomerate is not alien to the current trends and may suffer from an ongoing situation where luxury brands are so highly prized by investors. The same applied to Hermés, which misses 1.12%.

One of the outstanding performs of the session was to be find in the branded lifestyle apparel conglomerate VF Corporation that jumped considerably after The New York Post published on Tuesday that one of its menswear label, *John Varvatos*, is in talks with potential buyers about taking over the company and helping pay off its debt. According to the journal, among the suitors are Li & Fung USA, Phillip-Van Heusen, Jones Apparel, Warnaco and Kellwood. The newspaper added that Varvatos may be sold for less than its annual revenue, after the label posted a string of losses and racked up debt. When the bell rang yesterday, the American retailing group had surged more than 62 points.

Finally and after Tuesday’s rally for kidswear companies, yesterday, the main ones showed some trading tiredness, with the Children’s Retail Place falling by 1.24 points.