They do matter, at least on the day the paper is printed. It's the news of the day. I give most papers credit for carrying long-term analysis as well, even if it's AP wire analysis and not their own. I seldom read the headlines in the Business section of the Post without also reading Steve Pearlstein as well. I just hope I catch them on an "up" day when I sell off my Met stuff!

Except neither of these are simply news articles about the day's results on wall street, they are completely opposite analysis of future expectations based on a single day. It is, gasp, media sensationalism and is not news nor is it factual.
Of course it COULD be factual if you accept that both could be correct which then means that the people on wall street are totally swayed by singular events and posting of media polls. And even ignoring the totally contradictory message it sends to individual investors, THAT, is scary.

To a trader, the word "future" extends no longer than 24 hrs. at best. The future they refer to might only be the next trading session. People forget that market results, even over time, are less about economics in general than they are fear/greed cycles. All economic models assume one thing: that people are rational. Often, there is nothing remotely rational about the emotional rides people take in stock and commodity markets. Individual investors should be thinking long term, anyway and ignoring daily quotes in favor of sector trends and industry leader earnings projections. In defense of the articles I've seen, a release of weak consumer numbers  IS a pretty good indicator of the next quarter's critical earnings projections, in the sense that it's impact on a sensitive sector can be quantified over a longer term than just a day or so. It's not all sensationalism. What's scary is the number of individual investors I talk to who have no earthly idea what they even own or how those instruments work. It's really quite striking. Most of the future expectations based on a single day's results that you mention only gain their validity from the fact that people buy futures contracts based on those fears or exuberances of the given day and that CAN predict what will happen when those instruments mature. The market has a way of fulfilling it's own prophecies over the short term(30-60 days).