The Ibex 35 registered a 1.07% decline at noon on Thursday, reaching 13,261.7 points, following the decision of the Federal Reserve of the United States (Fed) to maintain interest rates.
The main indicator of the Spanish market, which closed at unprecedented highs since 2008 after five consecutive days of gains, started trading positively above 13,450 points. However, it quickly changed direction and fell sharply, a trend also seen in other European benchmark indices.
Delving into the day’s events, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve decided on Wednesday, after the European markets had closed, to keep interest rates in the target range of 4.25% to 4.50%. The pause was expected by the market, but what caught experts’ attention was the slowdown in the pace of balance sheet reduction. Additionally, the central bank revised its growth and inflation forecasts downward.
«In the short term, the Fed sees more uncertainty due to Trump’s erratic trade policy, but expects a transient impact on prices. This allows them to view inflation expectations as well anchored and not affecting the planned rate cuts,» analysts at Banca March summarized.
In this context, President Trump has emphasized the need for the Fed to cut interest rates while implementing announced import tariffs.
Continuing with monetary policy, the Bank of England (BoE) will announce its interest rate decision on Thursday, with expectations that rates will remain unchanged at 4.5%. In European macroeconomic news, Germany’s producer price index for February rose less than expected on an annual basis, at 0.7%, and declined by 0.2% on a monthly basis when a rise was anticipated.
On the Spanish macroeconomic front, the Treasury placed €6,474.251 million in a bond auction on Thursday, slightly above the mid-high range forecast, offering higher yields on the 20-year reference bond. This was reported by the Bank of Spain.
In the corporate sector, Banco Sabadell held its annual general meeting on Thursday, the first since returning to Catalonia. On Friday, BBVA will have its meeting as part of the public acquisition offer (OPA) launched by Carlos Torres’ entity for the Catalan bank.
Prior to Sabadell’s meeting, CEO César González-Bueno stated that BBVA’s OPA «endangers the welfare» of Spain due to its impact on the business fabric and especially on SMEs.
During midday trading on Thursday, the highest gains in the Ibex 35 were seen in Amadeus (+1.35%), Cellnex (+1.08%), and Inditex (+1.06%). On the downside, CaixaBank (-3.28%), ArcelorMittal (-3.13%), Unicaja (-2.82%), Banco Santander (-2.65%), Indra (-2.59%), BBVA (-2.38%), and Bankinter (-2.36%) stood out.
Major European stock exchanges also experienced losses at midday: London down 0.1%, Paris down 0.95%, Frankfurt down 1.33%, and Milan down 1.5%.
At the same time, the price of Brent crude oil, the benchmark for Europe, stood at $70.82, up 0.06%, while Texas crude rose by 0.04% to $67.17.
In the currency market, the euro against the dollar was at 1.0843, down 0.55% from the previous day. In the bond market, the yield on the Spanish 10-year bond was at 3.391%, down by three basis points, with a risk premium of 63.5 points compared to the German bond.
Gold prices moderated by 0.5% to $3,030 per ounce of troy, while Bitcoin remained stable at $85,250.