what is consumer discretionary 
consumer discretionary is a term that describes goods and services that consumers consider non essential but desirable if their available income is sufficient to purchase them examples of consumer discretionary products and services can include durable goods high end apparel entertainment leisure activities and automobiles companies that supply these types of goods and services are usually either called consumer discretionaries or consumer cyclicals the consumer discretionary sector of the economy encompasses various industries the companies of which produce consumer discretionary products individuals can focus their investing on this sector by buying consumer discretionary stocks mutual funds and etfs investopedia michela buttignolunderstanding consumer discretionarythe purchase of consumer discretionary products is often compared with the purchase of consumer staples both product classifications are influenced by cycles of the economy in general when the economy is strong consumers earn more and spend more on consumer discretionary products on the other hand when an economy is contracting consumers usually earn less and focus their spending more on products essential to their needs these are known as consumer staples also referred to as consumer defensive economic cycles have a big influence on earnings power and consumer spending in an economy there are four stages of an economic cycle they are defined as expansion peak contraction and trough a growing economy expansion to peak is usually characterized by stronger earnings for businesses and consumers this coincides with more spending a contracting economy contraction to trough generally has the opposite effect that is weaker earnings and less spending 