By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Fed Chair Jerome Powell used the central bank's annual Wyoming research conference to promise inflation-fighting rigor when it was needed in 2022, then last year he came to the defense of the job market with promises of lower interest rates when the unemployment rate seemed on a steady rise.

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.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at a research conference on Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. What can we expect?

Wall Street's main indexes were set for a muted open on Monday - in a quiet start to a week packed with corporate earnings reports from major retailers and the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

Gold price stalls below 50-day MA as traders await Powell’s Jackson Hole speech and Fed rate cut signals. Technical weakness keeps outlook neutral to bearish.

Wall Street and European shares were flat to marginally lower on Monday ahead of a potentially eventful week for U.S. interest rate policy, even as attention turned to Washington where Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders will meet President Donald Trump.