Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been under pressure from President Trump to lower the central bank's benchmark interest rate.

Wall Street is holding relatively steady ahead of a highly anticipated speech about where U.S. interest rates may be heading.

Investors are bracing for volatility as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell walks a fine line between curbing inflation and supporting the labor market, with thin August trading poised to magnify any market moves from his Jackson Hole speech on Friday.

The FTSE 100 and European stocks were higher on Friday as markets turn their attention to the much-anticipated speech by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. He is set to speak

Wall Street pointed modestly higher before the bell Friday as markets tried to snap a weeklong losing streak ahead of widely anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The Federal Reserve’s annual conference, hosted by the Kansas City Fed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, began Thursday evening with a dinner for the central bankers, economists and journalists who have flown in from around the world.

Stocks surged Friday and the Dow closed at its first record high of the year after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled interest rate cuts could be on the way.

Wall Street fell to a fifth straight loss on Thursday, hurt by a drop for Walmart and dampened hopes for coming cuts to interest rates. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4%. All its losses have been relatively modest,