Comment: Confident or cautious?

Anyone looking for evidence of a slowdown in consumer spending in the UK market need only peruse the first-half results from Safilo.

The Italian manufacturer highlights the UK as one of a number of European markets where sales were hit by 'the fragile nature of consumer buying', giving an overall fall of 5 per cent, partly affected by a comparison with a strong six months in 2007. Looking forward, though, things don't appear much better as the company believes the market will remain weak, and it urges caution.

Over at Luxottica, European troubles are not so great as it achieved satisfactory results in the second quarter. It gives a more bullish assessment of the future, stating that it is well positioned to tackle the challenges. It points to two brands, both acquisitions and both performing well. These are Oakley which should benefit from Olympic exposure and Ray-Ban, which has caught the imagination of younger wearers with the resurgent Wayfarer.