historically home depot and lowes low often experience higher sales in the spring and summer seasons due to the nature of their business during this period many homeowners and contractors embark on home improvement and construction projects leading to increased demand for their products and services the consumer discretionary sector also known as the cyclical consumer goods and services sector is a category of stocks that represents companies that sell nonessential goods and services these are items and services that consumers are willing to spend on when they have extra income and are likely to cut back on during tougher economic times the performance of the consumer discretionary sector is heavily dependent on the state of the economy in a growing economy consumers have more disposable income to spend on these discretionary items which can boost the revenues and profits of companies in this sector however in a recession consumer discretionary stocks are often hit hard as people cut back on unnecessary spending consumer discretionary stocks tend to be more sensitive to economic cycles compared to other sectors during a recession when unemployment rates rise and household incomes fall consumers typically cut back on nonessential or discretionary spending this can result in lower sales and profits for companies in the consumer discretionary sector which can in turn lead to lower stock prices here are a couple of historical examples 20082009 global financial crisis the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of the housing market in the united states led to a severe global recession many consumer discretionary stocks were hit hard for example ford motor companys stock price fell from a high of around 850 in 2007 to a low of 150 in 2009 similarly shares of luxury goods company tiffany  co dropped from around 57 in 2007 to about 20 in late 2008 dotcom bubble 20002002 while the dotcom bubble primarily affected technology stocks the resulting recession also had an impact on consumer discretionary stocks for instance shares of the gap inc a clothing retailer declined from over 50 in 2000 to around 10 in 2002 consumer discretionary select sector spdr fund xly this fund tracks the consumer discretionary select sector index some of its top holdings often include amazon tesla and home depot vanguard consumer discretionary etf vcr this etf tracks the msci us investable market consumer discretionary 2550 index some top holdings usually include amazon tesla and home depot fidelity msci consumer discretionary index etf fdis this fund seeks to track the performance of the msci usa imi consumer discretionary index top holdings often include amazon tesla and home depot ishares us consumer services etf iyc this etf tracks the dow jones us consumer services index some of its top holdings often include amazon home depot and comcast