1. Las VegasAs hordes of retailers descended on the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for the start of JCK Las Vegas June 1, a gloomy jobs report sent the Dow Jones industrial average on a 275-point nosedive. But business at jewelry market week didn’t go down the tubes with it. Indeed, with European debt woes and talk of a Far East slowdown ­clouding the global economic outlook, America has emerged as a beacon of stability—a conclusion borne out among high-profile exhibitors with recognizable names and luxury clients. Smaller firms, meanwhile, reported mixed results in Vegas, as did those who failed to book advance appointments (but that’s an old story). The upshot of JCK’s second year at its new digs? “Demand at the upper end is okay, and that’s what you saw at the show,” says Russell Shor, senior industry analyst at the Gemological Institute of America. “But the middle cl