After the company's latest earnings report, shares of luxury retail firm LVMH (LVMUY) are now down more than 27% off the mid-July highs around $200 per share. Undoubtedly, the high-end discretionary goods boom has ended, with "aspirational" buyers — middle-class consumers looking to purchase LVMH products as status symbols — taking the biggest hit at the hands of inflation and renewed recession fears. Meanwhile, consumer savings built up during the earlier days of the pandemic have long since been exhausted.
As the cost of living continues to surge, it's hard to imagine the aspirational consumer returning to splurge beyond their means anytime soon. Not while recession risks rise with every upward move in the 10-year yield.
