Stocks in Asia edged higher in a shaky start on Friday as anxious traders awaited a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the annual Jackson Hole symposium.

In a triumph for Donald Trump, a New York state appeals court on Thursday threw out a half-billion-dollar penalty while preserving a fraud case against him, enabling the U.S. president to rebound from one of his biggest legal defeats.

The U.S. dollar hovered below a one-week high on Thursday and European stock markets opened flat as investors braced for three days of potentially market-moving news from the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

The U.S. dollar inched upward on Thursday, trading just below a one-week high as investors prepared for the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium. By 04:40 ET (08:40 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies,

London (UKX) +1.08% at 9,288.  UK's inflation rises to 3.8% in July, highest in 18 months. Germany (DAX:IND) -0.60% at 24,277. France (CAC:IND) -0.08% at 7,973. The headline annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was unchanged from the prior month at 2% in July.