Tiffany loses shine as sales tank on weak tourist spending

Luxury jeweler Tiffany (TIF) didn't shine as brightly as expected in the first quarter as sales tanked both in the U.S. and abroad.

The company lowered its profit outlook for the year, sending shares down 3.6% in pre-market trading on the report out Wednesday.

TIffany has faced significant pressure from weak tourist spending, particularly overseas. Same-store sales fell 15% in both Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, with a "significant decline" in Hong Kong. The only market that had a successful quarter was Japan, where same-store sales grew 12% on spending by local customers. Same-store sales were down 10% in the Americas, due to lower spending by U.S. customers and tourists.

CEO Federic Cumenal said in a statement that the "difficult quarter" was "as expected."

Net sales fell 7% to $891 million, compared to $962 million in the year-ago quarter. That came well below the $915 million in revenue analysts expected, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Tiffany earned $87.5 million in the quarter, or 69 cents a share, down from 81 cents in the year-ago quarter. Analysts expected earnings per share of 68 cents.