Stocks start the week just shy of record highs, underpinned by a well-received corporate earnings season and hopes the Federal Reserve will soon start reducing official borrowing costs again. Investors are therefore keen that Friday’s keynote address by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole symposium will be suitably dovish.

The U.S. dollar hovered below a one-week high on Thursday and Asian stock markets were broadly mixed as investors braced for three days of potentially market-moving news from the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

The U.S. dollar slipped slightly on Tuesday, giving back earlier gains as investors remained cautious following the White House summit on Ukraine. By 04:40 ET (08:40 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies,