Wall Street Stunned!

This morning’s May BLS employment report delivered a jobs number that was way less than expected by economists who follow this stuff for a living. Like, more than 100,000 jobs off of the consensus expectation.

Wall Street is stunned!

But aren’t they always? You could start a publication and run the same headline every week about new developments – Wall Street Stunned! – and you’d still be fairly accurate as a chronicler of what’s going on.

The stock market refuses to play into the hands of the hysterics. The Dow is off less than 100 points as of this writing. Expectations for a June or July rate hike from the Fed have fallen through the floor. If the data flow gets stronger in the coming weeks, rate hike expectations will go right back up. Fed Funds futures are not prophetic. Traders are not precogs.

None of this expectations-setting process is science. Wall Street is always stunned by this or that development.

A roundup of reactions from The Street here, courtesy of Business Insider.