The U.S. dollar was marginally higher in early European trade Wednesday, ahead of an eagerly-anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell later in the day.

At 2:50 AM ET (0650 GMT), the U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, stood at 99.972, up 0.02%, while EUR/USD rose 0.03% to 1.0850. GBP/USD pushed 0.3% higher to 1.2297, and USD/JPY gained 0.03% to 107.16.

Powell will speak as a guest at a streaming event held by the Peterson Institute of International Economics at 9:00 AM ET (13:00 GMT),. a day after U.S. President Donald Trump again pushed the Federal Reserve to adopt negative interest rates, a subject which gained prominence last week when U.S. money market instruments started to price in a chance of the fed funds rate dropping below zero next year.

Source : Investing.com