Over the past month or so, the consumer discretionary sector has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the overall recovery in U.S. stocks. After the April 21 close, the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLY) was down around 19% in 2025. It was the worst-performing of the 11 SPDR S&P 500 sector ETFs at that point.
As of the May 16 close, it was down only around 3%, barely outperforming healthcare. The consumer discretionary sector notched the largest gain of any sector on May 12, 5%, as markets reacted to the United States—China trade deal.
