The Ibex 35 falls 0.16% at the close and loses 11,700 points, with all attention on the Fed

September 18 () –

The Ibex 35 closed Wednesday’s session down 0.16% to 11,684.7 points, in a session in which the index hovered around 11,700 points due to uncertainty over the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

The US central bank is expected to announce its monetary policy decision in a few hours. The market consensus is divided on whether the institution will undertake a 25 basis point cut, similar to that of the European Central Bank (ECB), or whether it will lower the price of money by 50 basis points.

The week will continue tomorrow with the Bank of England and the Bank of Norway’s rate decisions, while on Friday it will be the Bank of Japan’s turn.

In the macro sphere, it was also announced on Wednesday that the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has raised by two tenths, to 2.7%, the growth of Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023 as a result of the ordinary and extraordinary statistical review of the National Accounting data.

Eurostat has published that the inflation rate in the Eurozone stood at 2.2% year-on-year in August, four-tenths below the rise in prices observed in July, according to the second reading of the data.

In this context, Mapfre has been the main bullish value of the session in the Ibex 35 (+2.23%), followed by Telefónica (+1.27%), Aena (+1.24%), Acerinox (+1.07%), ArcelorMittal (+0.67%) and BBVA (+0.55%).

On the other hand, the declines have been led by Naturgy (-2.43%), Enagás (-2.20%), Grifols (-2%), Indra (-1.88%), Merlin (-1.64%) and Endesa (-1.63%).

Declines were common across the major European stock markets. London fell by 0.68%; Paris by 0.57%; Frankfurt by 0.08%; and Milan by 0.37%.

At the close of the European trading session, a barrel of Brent crude oil was quoted at $73.11, down 0.84%, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell 0.91% to $70.57.

The yield on the 10-year Spanish bond was at 3%, compared with 2.940% at the close on Tuesday. The risk premium thus rose by 1.2 points to 80.9 basis points.

On the currency market, the yield on the 10-year Spanish bond remained almost unchanged at 1.116 greenbacks per unit of the common currency.