The most recent completed session was Wednesday, July 15, 2026. The driver was a second soft U.S. inflation read, this time producer prices, layered on top of solid corporate earnings. BLS said June final-demand PPI fell 0.3% month over month and rose 5.5% year over year; Barron's and CoinDesk both framed that as cooler than expected, while AP tied the equity lift to earnings and easier bond yields.
The tape at a glance
| Market | Direction | Read |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 / Nasdaq | Up | Soft PPI and earnings carried the index bid |
| Brent crude / gold | Up / Down | Oil kept the Iran premium; gold failed to hold Tuesday's bid |
| Dollar / Treasuries | Mixed-to-down | Softer inflation pulled yields lower, but oil kept the move restrained |
| Bitcoin | Flat-to-up | Crypto cooled after Tuesday's rally but held near the mid-$60,000s |
Indices
U.S. equities finished higher, but the tape was not a clean broad-risk surge. AP's index wrap and the Wall Street Journal both reported the S&P 500 up 28.81 points, or 0.4%, to 7,572.40; the Dow up 150.37 points, or 0.3%, to 52,658.64; and the Nasdaq up 162.22 points, or 0.6%, to 26,269.23. AP said stocks got help from strong profit reports and easing yields after wholesale inflation slowed.
Leadership was mixed under the surface. WSJ said Apple, Alphabet and Amazon each rose more than 3%, while chip weakness offset part of that strength. Investor's Business Daily described the same split: the Nasdaq still rose, but semiconductor names were a drag. That makes Wednesday more of an earnings-and-rate relief session than a full return of the AI-chip bid.
Commodities
Oil kept the inflation problem alive even as PPI cooled. AP said Brent briefly topped $86 before settling at $84.95, up 0.3%, as U.S.-Iran tensions kept crude near one-month highs. WSJ's oil coverage had the same Brent settlement and WTI near $79.60, linking the third straight day of oil gains to renewed tension around Iranian shipping and the Strait of Hormuz.
Gold did not confirm the softer-rate story. WSJ said front-month gold settled down 0.42% at $4,044.00, while MarketWatch market data showed the continuous gold contract down 0.27% near $4,040.70. The read is restrained: lower inflation data helped rates, but higher oil and the prior day's sharp gold rally left precious metals with no clean follow-through.
Forex
FX was less decisive than Tuesday. Barron's said Treasury yields fell after the lower-than-expected PPI report, with the two-year yield dropping to 4.166% and the WSJ Dollar Index unchanged at that point. MarketWatch also framed the early move as a yield dip after cool PPI.
The dollar story was therefore mixed rather than dramatic. WSJ later had the WSJ Dollar Index down 0.30% to 96.86, while another Barron's update showed DXY steady around 100.974 as oil pressure pulled yields off their lows. That disagreement is useful: the session was not a one-way dollar selloff. It was a soft-inflation move partly checked by energy risk.
Crypto
Bitcoin held the CPI/PPI relief better than it extended it. CoinDesk's daybook said bitcoin's Tuesday rally had cooled, with the coin still roughly 3% higher over 24 hours but slightly lower since midnight as investors weighed inflation relief against oil risk. A separate CoinDesk live update had bitcoin around $64,800, up 2.1% over 24 hours after the PPI print, while Nasdaq 100 futures were higher.
That is high-beta macro behaviour with a ceiling. Crypto liked the softer inflation input and lower yields, but it did not ignore the oil backdrop or the fact that a lower PPI print is not the same thing as a rate cut. Compared with equities, the move looked constructive but less forceful by the U.S. close.
What it means for a systematic book
Wednesday was a mixed relief session. Producer inflation cooled, earnings helped equities, yields eased at first, and bitcoin held near its rebound. At the same time, oil stayed bid, gold slipped, and chip leadership was uneven.
For a systematic book, the regime matters more than the headline. A single risk-on label would miss the conflict between softer inflation and higher energy risk. realbacktesting keeps the focus on diversified, verifiable systems and methodology because cross-asset evidence is more useful than a neat macro story.