The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange started the day this Tuesday with a slight increase of 0.07%, placing itself at 20,186 points after having concluded the previous session at 20,173 units. As the first minutes of trading passed, the selective Madrid index consolidated the upward movement and, at 9:10 a.m., was around 20,250 points.
In parallel, the barrel of Brent oil, a reference in Europe, advanced by 1.6% at the opening of the markets of the Old Continent, up to 89.2 dollars per barrel. This rise was motivated by the halt in conversations between the United States (USA) and Iran and by the uncertainty regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a route through which, before the outbreak of the war in the Central Asian country, approximately a quarter of the world's oil and gas supply passed.
At the same time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, a reference in the United States, surpassed 83.5 dollars per barrel, with an increase of 1.7%.
On the geopolitical front, the president of the USA, Donald Trump, announced this Monday that he will demand "compensation" from Iran for "all" the people they have "killed and injured" and the "numerous" conflicts in which the Iranian authorities are involved. With these words, the American leader responded to Tehran's demands to include in the negotiations for a peace agreement compensation to the country for the "damages" suffered during the ongoing "military conflict" five months ago.
Thus, and awaiting the publication of the CPI, retail sales, and producer price index data from the United States in the coming days, investors will remain attentive this Tuesday to the evolution of the situation in the Middle East, in a session without major macroeconomic references in Europe. In the USA, the publication of housing sales figures is scheduled for today.
At the national level, the Public Treasury will carry out this Tuesday the last auction of the month of August, in which it expects to place between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion euros in three and nine-month bills.
In the corporate field, Banco Santander communicated yesterday, after the market closed, that it will launch a new share buyback program when the current one concludes, with the intention of starting on August 24. The amount will rise to 1.825 billion euros, equivalent to 25% of the profit generated between January and June. Another 25% will be distributed via cash dividend, whose approval will be submitted to the board of directors on September 29.
On the other hand, before the opening of the European stock exchanges, the Council of the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to maintain interest rates at 4.35% after three consecutive increases since the beginning of the year, considering that monetary policy is "somewhat restrictive" and despite inflation remaining too high, so it does not rule out future increases in the cost of money.
In the early stages of the session on the Madrid Stock Exchange, the largest increases within the Ibex 35 corresponded to Acerinox (+2%), Repsol (+0.97%), Indra (+0.90%) and Endesa, which advanced by 0.60%.
On the contrary, the most pronounced declines in the first minutes of trading were recorded in IAG (-0.67%), Inditex (-0.44%), Puig (-0.41%) and Colonial, which fell by 0.36%.
As for the rest of the markets on the continent, the main European stock exchanges started the day this Tuesday with slight declines. Both London and Paris and Frankfurt gave up less than a tenth at the start of the day, while Milan advanced by around 0.1%.
In Asia, the main stock exchanges recorded widespread declines, with the exception of the South Korean Kospi, which posted gains of over 0.7%. The Japanese Nikkei remained closed this Tuesday due to a holiday.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro lost ground against the dollar, trading in the markets around 1.1540 dollars. In the debt market, the yield of the Spanish ten-year bond rose to 3.639%.