The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange has started the session this Wednesday with a decrease of 0.68%, which placed it at 19,312.5 points and made it lose the threshold of 19,400 points that it managed to hold on Tuesday.
Investors will continue today very attentive to the situation in the Middle East, after the Houthi rebel militias from Yemen announced multiple drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, directing projectiles at King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, Abha International Airport, and the Saudi Armed Forces airbase in Khamis Mushait, in addition to several military camps in the southwest of the Kingdom, which supports the internationally recognized government forces of Yemen.
In this context, the price of Brent crude oil, a reference in Europe, was up 0.9% at the start of the stock exchanges in the Old Continent, reaching 101.4 dollars, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a reference in the United States, rose 0.7%, to 90.1 dollars per barrel.
On the national macroeconomic front, the Federal District Court of Columbia (USA) has issued four new rulings against Spain for the retroactive cuts to renewable energy premiums, raising the total number of convictions in U.S. territory to 13.
In the corporate sphere, this Wednesday marks the deadline to submit the first bid for Tubos Reunidos, and according to the latest official data available, there are at least 14 interested parties in acquiring the company.
On the other hand, Airtificial has announced, before the market opens, the signing of a new international contract for 6.4 million dollars (5.7 million euros) with a U.S. "Tier-1" supplier for the design and manufacture of an automated assembly and testing line for electric cars, which will be delivered turnkey at its plant in Michigan, in the Detroit automotive hub.
In this scenario, in the early stages of trading this Wednesday on the Madrid Stock Exchange, the biggest gains within the Ibex 35 corresponded to Acciona (+1.1%), Solaria (+1%), Telefónica (+0.6%), and Cellnex (+0.4%).
On the loss side, the most significant declines in the first minutes of the session were for Repsol (-1.4%), Santander (-1.31%), and Arcelormittal (-1.3%).
At the same time, the main European stock markets started the day with declines: Milan and Paris fell by 0.6%, Frankfurt dropped by 0.8%, and London decreased by 0.4%.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro lost ground against the dollar, settling at an exchange rate of 1.1218 "greenbacks," while in the debt market, the yield on the Spanish ten-year bond rose to 4.136%.