Wall Street will be listening closely to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech Friday at the Jackson Hole economic policy summit, where he could signal whether the central bank is ready to cut borrowing costs at its next meeting in September.

The U.S. dollar was little changed on Wednesday as traders awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the annual Jackson Hole central bankers' symposium later this week for clues on the path of monetary policy.

The Nasdaq fell as megacaps lost, after having rallied for much of the year. Nvidia fell 3.5%, the biggest drop in nearly four months.

Jerome Powell has the ideal platform Friday to deliver a clear signal the Federal Reserve is about to resume cutting interest rates. But the economy isn’t giving him an equally clear signal that now is the time.

Incoming information has confounded Fed Chair Jerome Powell's data-dependent strategy by pulling in both directions.

Gold rates fell in early trade on Wednesday, August 20, as a stronger dollar weighed on sentiment, while investors awaited the minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday.