World stocks and Wall Street futures generally edged higher early Friday as investors await Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s much-anticipated speech at a symposium in Jackson Hole later in the day, watching for clues when the Fed will begin to roll back some of its crisis support measures for the economy.
In early trading, Germany’s DAX rose almost 0.1 percent to 15,797.05 and the FTSE 100 in Britain added 0.1 percent to 7,128.59. France’s CAC 40 slipped less than 0.1 percent to 6,664.55. Wall Street was positioned for gains, with futures for the benchmark S&P 500 rising 0.3 percent to 4,480.25 and Dow futures advancing 0.3 percent to 35,261.00.
