From Tyler Durden: During the FOMC press conference this week, Janet Yellen was pushed by Bloomberg’s Kathleen Hays to explain why she hiked rates amid what was evidently not a surging economy.

While Q1 looks to be the weakest economic growth period for a rate hike since 1980, today we got some more confirming real-time ‘hard’ data confirming the facts that the US economy is anything but as strong and resilient as Yellen proclaimed it.

Industrial Production has never declined on a 24-month basis without the US economy being in recession:

So, dear Janet, explain yourself (or just blame the weather… for 29 straight months).

So far today, the markets aren’t even blinking at the industrial production news. The major U.S. indexes are all mostly flat, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) trading at $237.72 per share on Friday morning, up $0.28 (+0.12%). Year-to-date, the largest ETF in the world has gained 6.35%.

SPY currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 107 ETFs in the Large Cap Blend ETFs category.

This article is brought to you courtesy of ZeroHedge.

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