Yes, this may be the worst recession America has seen since World War II. But the people who are bringing us the Consumer Electronics Show would like to point out that sales of tech products are actually faring pretty well when compared to what happened during previous recessions.

The evidence suggest that people’s views on devices such as televisions, notebook computers and mobile phones are changing, says Shawn DuBravac, economist for the Consumer Electronics Association. Through November of 2008, 17.22 percent of total durable good purchases were tech goods, the highest share in 50 years, he says.

“While these are typically discretionary purchases, consumers are treating them like nondiscretionary purchases,” says Mr. DuBravac.

That doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t making cutbacks. In fact, in many categories, consumers seem to be gravitating toward lower-priced items for varying reasons. For example, coming out of the 2007 holiday season, nearly 50 percent of all flat panel sales were over 40 inches. Today, Mr. DuBravac says, that numbers stands closer to 35 percent.

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Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay this morning cut his ratings on both Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) to Market Perform from Outperform, noting that the stocks have rallied off their November lows toward his target prices of $50 for Amazon and $16 for eBay. Given the current macro environment, he writes, there is little upside to current 2009 estimates, with increased risk of reduced guidance or under-performance.

For Amazon, he has three major concerns:

Reduced discretionary spending as unemployment and home foreclosures further erode U.S. consumer confidence. He notes that “the vast majority of goods sold by Amazon are discretionary purchases.” He says consumers have “pulled out all of the stops for the holiday season”–have they?–he expects “much more cautious and restrained spending as redundancies and home foreclosures continue as expected through 2009.”

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