Tiffany hopes to ride out Wall Street storms

By Aarthi Sivaraman

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock market experts say trying to time a market perfectly is a fool's game: Picking a perfect bottom to buy something or a perfect top to sell never pays off.

Upscale jeweler Tiffany & Co (TIF.N) is betting its decision to open a fancy new store on Wall Street in lower Manhattan will pay off in the long-term, despite a newfound thriftiness among bankers, traders and other market players.

Tiffany's Wall Street store -- a stone's throw from the New York Stock Exchange -- has not gotten off to the greatest start. Its first months have coincided with a market slump that has rocked banks, cost thousands of jobs and created anxiety throughout the financial industry.

"I suppose that looking back a couple of years from now, we might say 'Yeah, the timing wasn't perfect for that store,'" said Edward Jones analyst Stephanie Hoff.

"But I think strategically it still makes sense ... when you look at Tiffany, its growth profile and its ability to drive Wall Street into its stores."

Indeed, times are tough on Wall Street.

The turmoil of financial markets has left many bankers with uncertain futures, or worse, without jobs, and many of those who are still employed face lower bonuses.

Tiffany's new store, aiming to be as close as possible to Wall Street's legion of high earners and residents of downtown Manhattan, opened last October.

"Of course the timing wasn't the best," said Pam Danziger, president of market research firm Unity Marketing. "Tiffany focuses on luxury consumers and being on Wall Street, their target market is the Wall Street types who are taking a hit."

Given the time and investment that go into opening a new store, it would have been costly for Tiffany, which has a 20-year lease for the Wall Street location, to alter its plans.

"You certainly can't just say 'Oh well, the economy looks like it might be turning down and therefore we are not going to open our store,'" Hoff said. "They have to think longer term."

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The Tiffany shop boasts 12-foot glass walls, jewelry displays on two levels and a staircase made of marble, glass and stainless steel.

In November, spokesman Mark Aaron said the store, "has had a very good start."

But weak sales at Tiffany's established stores, much like at other jewelry retailers over the holidays, have left the jeweler wary about U.S. sales for the first half of the current fiscal year -- mere months after the Wall Street store opened.