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.

U.S. and European shares started the week on a cautious footing ahead of a potentially eventful week for U.S. interest rate policy, as attention turned to Washington where Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders will meet Donald Trump.

Gold prices were largely unchanged in Tuesday’s Asian session as investors stayed on the sidelines, awaiting clarity on a possible Russia-Ukraine peace deal and the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium. The metal is recovering some losses from last week,