Designed to provide broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market, the iShares U.S. Consumer Discretionary ETF (IYC) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on June 12, 2000.
Passively managed ETFs are becoming increasingly popular with institutional as well as retail investors due to their low cost, transparency, flexibility and tax efficiency. They are excellent vehicles for long term investors.
Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Consumer Discretionary - Broad is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 9, placing it in bottom 44%.
Index Details
The fund is sponsored by Blackrock. It has amassed assets over $1.17 billion, making it one of the larger ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Broad segment of the equity market. IYC seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Services Index before fees and expenses.
The Russell 1000 Consumer Disc 40 Act 15/22.5 Daily Capped Index measures the performance of the consumer services sector of the U.S. equity market.
Costs
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.38%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.51%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector -- about 69.6% of the portfolio. Telecom and Consumer Staples round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Amazon Com Inc (AMZN) accounts for about 14.29% of total assets, followed by Tesla Inc (TSLA) and Walmart Inc (WMT).The top 10 holdings account for about 51.36% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
The ETF has lost about 2.63% and was up about 3.65% so far this year and in the past one year (as of 05/18/2026), respectively. IYC has traded between $94.23 and $107.18 during this last 52-week period.
The ETF has a beta of 1.15 and standard deviation of 17.18% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 172 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
iShares U.S. Consumer Discretionary ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. IYC, then, is not a suitable option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. However, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.
Vanguard Consumer Discretionary Index Fund ETF Shares (VCR) tracks MSCI US Investable Market Consumer Discretionary 25/50 Index and the State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) tracks Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index. Vanguard Consumer Discretionary Index Fund ETF Shares has $5.98 billion in assets, State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF has $22.32 billion. VCR has an expense ratio of 0.09%, and XLY charges 0.08%.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
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iShares U.S. Consumer Discretionary ETF (IYC): ETF Research Reports
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).