The IBEX 35 rose 0.41% to 9,292.80 points by mid-trade. This Thursday’s session is the last of the week for the index, which won’t become active again until Tuesday because remains closed on both Good Friday and Easter Monday. The indicator stands with few changes for the cumulative week after finding last Friday’s close at 9,232.50 points.
Leading the Ibex’s gains is Caixabank, up a strong 2.96% to €3.45. Other banks such as Banco Sabadell and Unicaja Banco posted gains of more than 2%, while blood products company Grifols rose 2.26%. On the downside, the biggest penalty today is for Acciona, falling 1.48%.
Investors need to pay attention today to Iberdrola, which ended yesterday’s session at year-highs thanks to its sale in Mexico. The company will focus on finding “new opportunities” in the US and Europe after selling 8,434 megawatts (MW) in Mexico for $6,000 million.
Iberdrola is almost entirely closing its troubled presence in the North American country, which analysts say makes strategic sense as a sign of its strategic plan. An operation that brings it to its annual highs in view of the good trend forecast by analysts.
Along with Iberdrola, Cellnex has been one of the main players in the market in recent days, counting the days since its notoriety. the resignation as an adviser to former President Bertrand Kan. According to market speculation, this departure could speed up the search for a new CEO.
A stock to watch closely in the continuous market is OHLA, which has returned to January levels based on its rating. The exit of the Villar Mir family from the stake in the construction company has led to a month of March that has resulted in significant losses, from levels above 0.60 euros per share to the current ones that have set us back in price by a quarter since that one of its targets for the year was not met.
In the macroeconomic part, the agenda is quite loose: Investors must pay attention to the report of the monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the initial claims for US unemployment benefits this Thursday. The report on job cuts (Challenger) from the USA is also published.
Despite closed markets, tomorrow’s Friday will see the release of US nonfarm payrolls for March, numbers eagerly awaited by investors to confirm the extent to which the US jobs market is slowing and whether it is a real sign of it that the economy will slow down as quickly as many investors seem to fear at the moment.
The beginning of also appears on the horizon the earnings season that unofficially kicks off next week with earnings from the big Wall Street banks. “In doing so, we will examine to what extent managers are concerned about the macroeconomic scenario they are facing and whether or not they are reviewing their business and earnings expectations on this basis,” he emphasizes. Juan J. Fernández-Figares of Link Management. “Analysts will do the same after the release of earnings figures corresponding to the recently ended quarter.”
“We understand that this quarterly earnings release season, at least in the short/medium term, can be key to how equity markets perform and should serve to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’, with companies emerging stronger from it and others, who will be punished, ”adds Fernández-Figares. “Until then, We expect investors to maintain the defensive tone they have been adopting over the past few daysespecially considering the long weekend ahead of the markets due to the celebration of Holy Week”.
On the other European stock markets, the EURO STOXX 50 rose by 0.29% to 4,308 points in the middle of trading, while the German DAX rose by 0.33%. In Paris, the CAC 40 is up 0.21% and in London, the FTSE 100 is up 0.60%.
During the Asian session harsh punishment for the Tokyo Nikkei 225 indexwhich closed down 1.22% to 27,472 points.
In the fixed income space, the Spanish 10-year note offers a secondary market yield of 3.174% the risk premium compared to Germany is 103.25 points. Across the Atlantic, the US 10-year bond yield is 3.285%.
In commodity markets, oil prices were little changed in Thursday’s session after weak US jobs data yesterday pointed to a slowdown in economic conditions that could hurt demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude is trading at $80.34 a barrel, while benchmark Brent Oil Futures in Europe is trading at $84.75 a barrel. Prices rose more than 6% earlier in the week after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, collectively known as OPEC+, pledged voluntary production cuts.
The Gold prices remain in the maximum zone after hitting their highest level since March 2022 yesterday afternoonand extended a comeback on weaker US economic data that supported bets that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates more slowly.
Spot gold is at $2,020.30 an ounce after hitting $2,031.89 yesterday, its highest level since March 2022.
The exchange rate between the euro and the dollar is 1.0904 dollars for each common currency.