LONDON (Reuters) - Shares and the euro were stuck in tight ranges on Wednesday with investors reluctant to make any moves ahead of a key speech by the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman on Friday and details of the European Central Bank's response to the region's debt crisis.
However, oil prices slid after Hurricane Isaac, which hit land in the U.S. Gulf state of Louisiana overnight, spared oil production facilities from any significant damage.
The European single currency was near a seven-week high against the dollar at $1.2555, supported by a view the Fed may soon ease monetary policy further and optimism the ECB will shortly detail an effective plan to tackle the high borrowing costs facing struggling euro zone nations like Spain.
"We've got the prospects of further quantitative easing in the United States and a rate cut in Europe, but against that we've got a worsening economic outlook, so we're in limbo for the time being," said Richard Griffiths, associate director at Berkeley Futures Ltd.
The severity of Spain's problems became more evident on Tuesday when the region of Catalonia, which represents about a fifth of the country's economy, said it needed help and data showed the national economy falling deeper into recession.
But confidence that the ECB would come to the rescue left the FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> only 0.1 percent lower at 1,087.69 points in early trade with the euro area's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index <.STOXX50E> flat at 2442.72 points.
Brent crude futures were down 20 cents at $112.38 a barrel, after dropping below $112 in early trade with energy analysts expecting U.S. production factories, shut down ahead of the storm, to begin reopening.
A week before the next ECB monetary policy meeting, European debt markets were steady with investors looking ahead to Thursday's Italian debt auction, which will gauge investor confidence in the central bank's ability to contain the crisis.
(Reporting by Richard Hubbard. Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
