A Plunge in Some Stocks May Be Offset by Fed Holding Hikes

The economy adding 160,000 jobs in April, as opposed to consensus expectations of 200,000, is a tough pill to swallow in the near-term.

And it's certainly not what many, including TheStreet's founder Jim Cramer, were hoping to hear. 

"I didn't want to see this number," Cramer said Friday. "There are many companies whose earnings will be hurt by this. Retail not that good. Banking not that good."

Looking forward, the weak number certainly implies the Fed could be deterred from raising interest rates amidst slowing world economic conditions, as TheStreet's sister publication RealMoney reported Friday. 

"The two things that I'm focused on are the dollar and oil, and a weak number meant to me that perhaps the Fed won't necessarily raise (rates), which then could drive the dollar down, which is kind of what's happening," Cramer explained Friday.

The Federal Reserve will only see one more set of jobs data before its June meeting, making Friday's figures all the more vital in reducing a chance of a rate hike announcement. Consensus from an earlier Fed meeting this year shows the number of rate hikes suspected this year is already down to two from earlier projections of four.

A slightly better jobs number, however, may have still led to this result with the Fed without the added negative impact of losing stocks for companies in sectors such as retail, according to Cramer. 

"It is not the number I wanted. I wanted a number that kind of split the difference," he said. "Just strong enough that people might say retail could be good, but not so strong that the Fed is going to be in your face. And this one was not strong enough" 

Due to the added jobs miss, the February nonfarm payroll figure was revised downward to 233,000 from 245,000 and March figures were also revised downward slightly to 215,000 from 208,000.

The unemployment rate was unchanged from last month standing at 5.0% and wage growth was 0.3%. Year over year, average hourly earnings increased 2.5% to $25.53.

The result is a likely market shift, but it is unclear to Cramer where that shift will take place.

"We're going to lose a lot of stocks, but at the same time if the dollar does go down, we'll gain a lot and people will go back to the cyclicals," he said. "I don't know, it's really on edge right now where the money will go." --Carleton English contributed to this report