The morning before the speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, which had been eagerly awaited for days, the stock exchanges in Europe were also disoriented.

As in the days before, the indices maneuvered around the respective closing price of the previous day.

Powell will address the Federal Reserve Board meeting in Jackson Hole on Friday afternoon (European time).

Investors expect her to provide information on how much the Fed intends to tighten its monetary policy.

Archibald Preuschat

Editor in Business

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After the leading German index Dax had started the trading day with gains, the plus after two hours of trading was only 0.05 percent, which meant 13,279 points.

The situation was similar with the leading European index, the Euro Stoxx 50, which was up 0.2 percent at 3,681 points.

There was also a lack of direction in the dollar exchange rate: the dollar index was slightly up at 108.5750 points.

One euro was worth $0.9992 in the morning.

If Powell sends a strong signal that he intends to raise interest rates, this should give the US currency a boost and the euro should slip further below par.

Data from the European Central Bank (ECB) released on Friday showed that euro-zone money supply growth weakened for the ninth straight month in July.

The broad money supply M3 gained 5.5 percent month-on-month.

M3 money stock also includes shares in money market funds, repo liabilities, money market paper and bank bonds with a term of up to two years.

The narrower M1 money supply, which includes only cash and non-bank sight deposits, also grew weaker in July, falling to 6.7 percent from 7.2 percent.

Meanwhile, lending to non-financial firms increased 7.7 percent, up from 6.9 percent in June.

Meanwhile, the price of gas has been a roller coaster.

The European future climbed in the morning by up to 41.1 percent to 307 euros per megawatt hour.

The day before, it had initially set course for its March record high of EUR 335 and then crashed to EUR 217.50.