The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange started the session this Thursday with an advance of 0.28%, standing at 19,691 points, on a day marked by the latest decision of the Federal Reserve of the United States (Fed), communicated yesterday with the European markets already closed, to raise interest rates by a quarter of a point and set the target range between 3.75% and 4%.
This is the first tightening move of monetary policy under the mandate of the newly appointed Fed chairman, Kevin Warsh, who thus imposes himself on the pressures of the President of the United States (USA), Donald Trump, an advocate of a reduction in the reference rate.
The agreement, unanimously adopted by the U.S. central bank, also represents the first rate hike in the USA since July 2023 and returns the official price of money to the level in effect in December 2025.
"The truth is that inflation is too high and has been for too long," asserted the 'guardian of the dollar' after the Fed's announcement to raise rates.
After the moves of the Fed and the European Central Bank -- which last week also opted to increase the price of money -- this Thursday it will be the Bank of England that will announce its monetary roadmap, and tomorrow Friday the Bank of Japan will do the same.
In parallel, the Spanish Public Treasury is holding its last auction of September today, with an issuance of state bonds in which it expects to raise between 5,000 and 6,000 million euros, according to the objectives set by the agency dependent on the Ministry of Economy.
Investors will also remain very attentive to the situation in the Middle East due to its impact on oil prices. Following the announcement by the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, that Saudi Arabia will "very soon" resume activity in the East-West pipeline, recently targeted by an attack carried out by Iraq, the Brent barrel, a reference in Europe, fell by 1.5% at the opening of the European stock markets, to 104.1 dollars.
At the same time, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) barrel, the reference crude in the USA, decreased by 1.1%, to 101.2 dollars.
In the corporate sphere, Ezentis has reported before the opening of the Spanish market that it obtained a net profit of 2.4 million euros in the first half of the year, thus returning to the black after losses of nearly 1.3 million euros recorded in the first six months of 2025.
Likewise, the board of directors of Árima Real Estate is holding an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders this Thursday with the aim of approving the first dividend in its history, of 0.837 euros per share, with the expectation of paying it out tomorrow Friday.
IAG leads the rises of the Ibex at the opening
During the first minutes of trading on the Madrid Stock Exchange, the largest increases within the Ibex 35 corresponded to IAG (+1.89%), Rovi (+1.29%), Aena (+1.28%) and Solaria and Indra, both with advances of 1.07%.
On the downside, the sharpest declines at the start of the session were for Colonial (-0.59%), Repsol (-0.58%), Cellnex (-0.24%) and Telefónica (-0.19%).
The main European markets also began the day on a positive note. London and Milan rose by about 0.5% at 9:06 a.m., while Paris added around 0.4% and Frankfurt recorded more than 0.5%.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro gained ground against the dollar, trading in the markets at 1.1477 "greenbacks," while in sovereign debt, the yield on the Spanish ten-year bond eased to 3.969%.
Additionally, traders will be attentive this Thursday to the publication of the eurozone CPI for August, as well as to the unemployment claims and building permits data in the U.S.