Let's Be Honest, Tiffany's Results Were Terrible

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Representative of the high-end of the consumer economy, Tiffany's(TIF) results are often taken as a bellwether -- the Alcoa(AA) or Wal-Mart(WMT) of the wealthy -- so it's important to get it right.

You know where we're going with this, right?

Tiffany reported their first-quarter results yesterday. Though the company seemed to be throwing off signs earlier in the year that the luxury-goods market might be getting its groove back, nothing doing here.

Results were terrible.

But there the media went again, with a good number of headlines that were -- well, not so indicative of terrible results. Take The Associated Press, for example. Their headline said: "Tiffany's profit essentially flat, cuts outlook."

You hear that? Their profit was essentially flat. That's not terrible, right? Wrong.

Tiffany earned 64 cents a share, compared with 63 cents a year ago. That means that The Associated Press was, on the most basic level, passing along a reality -- and at least they mentioned the light outlook. But it's not enough of a telling reality. The Associated Press didn't let you know until near the end of the article that expectations were for 69 cents a share.

Sure, it was essentially flat, but that's a huge miss. Terrible. It is representative of a huge level of overconfidence in the high-end consumer.

Forbes got it right. It's headline read: "No life of luxury: Tiffany plunges."