The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange was down 1.32% at mid-session this Friday, bringing the benchmark to 19,225 points, on a day shaped by the sharp losses of the previous day on Wall Street after the collapse of the big tech companies over fears that a Democratic victory would curb the expansion of data centers and by concerns about the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
At the same time, this Friday’s session was also marked by the publication of corporate earnings for the third quarter of 2026 and by tension in the Middle East, which keeps the price of crude oil around the 97-dollar threshold.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has confirmed that two more oil tankers have been hit by naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz while they were trying to cross “an unauthorized route,” before adding that both ships had to stop navigating after fires were declared on board as a result of the explosions.
For his part, the U.S. president, Donald Trump, has said that Iran will need 25 years to “rebuild” the country after the offensive launched in February by the United States and Israel against the Asian country, and he emphasized that “soon” he will decide whether to “destroy the rest of the country,” in a context of speculation about a possible restart of the offensive.
Against this backdrop, Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, has conveyed to Trump the need to “adopt diplomatic means” and “avoid a further escalation” in the Middle East.
In this context, Brent crude oil, the benchmark in Europe, was up 0.65% at mid-session of the European stock exchanges, to 97.7 dollars, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark in the US, became more expensive to 90.17 “greenbacks,” 0.36% higher.
On the corporate front, Amadeus posted a net profit of 1,081.6 million euros in the first nine months of 2026, which implies a 0.6% decline compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year.
In turn, IAG registered gains after tax of 2,264 million euros between January and September, 16.2% lower than a year earlier. Both listed companies have been pressured by higher fuel costs and by operational disruptions resulting from the military conflict in the Middle East.
Within the Ibex 35, at 12:00 p.m. the most hard-hit stocks were Inditex (-3.5%), Rovi (-3.26%), Grifols (-2.88%), Telefónica (-2.87%) and Cellnex (-2.69%). On the other side, only seven companies managed gains: ACS (+1.47%), Merlin (+1.06%), Acciona Energia (+1.03%), Solaria (+0.93%), ArcelorMittal (+0.4%), IAG (+0.31%) and Acciona (+0.19%).
Thus, the Ibex 35’s performance replicated the sharp pullbacks recorded on Thursday in Wall Street, where the Dow Jones closed with a plunge of 3.44%, while the Nasdaq gave up 5.52% by the end of the session.
Similarly, the rest of the major indexes in the Old Continent were also suffering significant drops at 12:00. Paris’s Cac40 fell 1.64%; London’s Ftse100, 1.94%; Milan’s FtseMib, 1.11%; and Frankfurt’s DAX 30, 1.98%.
Dragged down as well by the correction in the United States, the main Asian bourses posted large declines this Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei losing 5.96% and South Korea’s Kospi hovering around losses of 6%.
"Extreme volatility and signals of capitulation suggest that markets could be closer to a significant floor than many fear. However, prudence advises considering whether the time has come to bid farewell to the *AI fever* as we know it," the head of Research at Julius Baer, Christian Gattiker, argued.
In the sovereign debt market, the yield on the Spanish 10-year bond stood at 3.83%, above the 3.824% recorded at the close on Thursday. In this way, the risk premium versus the German bond stood at 59.24 basis points.
Lastly, in the currency market, the euro lost ground against the dollar (-0.42%), to trade at an exchange rate of 1.1172 "greenbacks" per each Community currency.