S&P and Nasdaq back to Record highs – Market wrap for the North American session - July 17

Ben Graham · July 17, 2025

Log in to today's North American session recap for the July 17, 2025.

Markets had quickly waved off war fears after yesterday's volatile session, enjoying from the consecutive positive US Data reports.

Today saw another decent Retail Sales report (+0.6% vs 0.1% exp) which led to markets rallying strongly – Complemented by a very decent Earnings season, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are again closing at their record highs.

The new CFD Records are 6,311 and 23,133 respectively for the indices. The Dow also broke out from a bearish shorter term downtrend, enjoying from the positive sentiment.

Netflix by the way just released their earnings, with a marginal upwards surprise (nothing crazy there).

Elsewhere, we saw some disappointing Employment data from Australia (4.3% unemployment vs 4.1% exp) leading to some strong selling in the AUD.

The UK additionally saw weaker Employment and Wage growth but we haven't seen the similar weakness in the GBP which held surprisingly well against the USD – Cable is technical support around the 1.34 level.

Crypto Altcoins have also shined again today, with XRP leading and ADA following closely – The Market really is appreciating the consolidation in Bitcoin at its highs, allowing the rest of the digital asset market to shine again.

Metal performance has been relatively calm, with gold ranging around its $3,300 Pivot, Platinum and Palladium pursuing their run higher and Silver retracting off still consolidating around 14 year highs.

Daily Cross-Asset performance

S&P and Nasdaq back to Record highs – Market wrap for the North American session - July 17 - ExpertFX School

There was less volatility than yesterday's trading, with Oil being the winner (0.94% after a few rough sessions) and Gold the least performing Majorly traded asset.

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

The US Dollar regained back some of its lost strength from yesterday and is back on top with the GBP closely following despite worse than expected.

The AUD is the loser of the day after the disappointing Employment data bringing back cuts on the table, closely followed by the CHF then the JPY (not enjoying the risk-on session)

Earnings Season: Who is releasing their numbers tomorrow?

Expect earnings from Charles Schwab, 3M, American Express and Schlumberger.

The earnings season has seen some decent results, and banks have shined quite well

A look at Economic Data releasing in the overnight and upcoming Session

Today's session is not finished for JPY Traders as Markets await for the Japanese CPI data releasing at 19:30 this evening expected to cool off from 3.7% y/y to 3.3% – Any upwards surprise should prompt some much-anticipated reactions from the Bank of Japan.

Except for that, watch for the upcoming Waller speech at 18:30 ET (who surprised Markets with some dovishness at his last speech).

Tomorrow will also focus on US Data with the Monthly University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment and Inflation expectations release, expected at 61.5

Safe Trades!

Opinions are the authors'; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. The provided publication is for informational and educational purposes only.
If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please refer to the MarketPulse Terms of Use.
Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets.
© {CURRENT_YEAR} OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.