Stock Market Today: Global Shares Mostly Slip Ahead of Speech by Fed’s Powell

A currency trader passes by the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), (L), and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, (C), at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 8, 2023. Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo

TOKYO—Global shares were mostly lower in muted trading Wednesday ahead of a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that might point the way for future interest rate policy.

France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.2 percent to 6,971.37 and Germany’s DAX lost 0.3 percent to 15,108.60. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up less than 0.1 percent to 7,413.84. The future for the S&P 500 was down less than 0.1 percent while that for the Dow industrials was unchanged.