MADRID, 21 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The Ibex 35 closed this Thursday's session at 10,867.5 points, which represents an increase of 1.07% compared to the previous closing, after learning yesterday after the market close that the members of the Federal Reserve (Fed) of the United States expect about three interest rate cuts in 2024.
Specifically, the majority of US central bankers expect the year to end with interest rates 75 basis points below their current level. At a standard rate of 25 basis points, this would mean three drops in the price of money this year.
During the session, the Ibex has remained at its highest since 2017 and has even momentarily exceeded 10,900 integers.
For its part, the Bank of England has also decided to maintain interest rates this Thursday, although it has encouraged expectations of a future change in position by ensuring that things are evolving "in the right direction."
Continuing with interest rates, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) decided this Thursday to reduce the official interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 1.5%, which represents the first reduction in the price of money in the Swiss country since 2014 and makes the entity the first of the large central banks to begin the reversal of the monetary restriction cycle.
Regarding other macro data, the deterioration in the activity of the private sector in the euro zone during the month of March has moderated to a minimum, as reflected in the advance data of the composite PMI, whose reading of 49.9 points, compared to 49 ,February 2, is the best in the last nine months and suggests a stabilization of the euro bloc economy, according to S
In the business field, Iberdrola has reported that it foresees gross investments of around 41,000 million euros in the period 2024-2026 to achieve a net profit of between 5,600-5,800 million euros at the end of the period, according to the figures presented on the occasion of its Capital Markets Day held in London.
At that event, Iberdrola announced, among other matters, that it obtained capital gains of 1.1 billion euros with the closing of the sale of 55% of its business in Mexico for about 6.2 billion dollars (about 5.8 billion euros).
Grifols has been the main bullish value this Thursday (4.49%). They have been followed by Amadeus (2.71%), BBVA (2.61%), Meliá (2.58%), Merlin (2.56%) and IAG (2.53%).
On the opposite side, the values that have fallen the most have been Bankinter (-2.03%), Enagás (-1.53%), Endesa (-1.16%), Acciona Energía (-0.71%), Redeia (-0.63%) and Naturgy (-0.55%).
Stock market performance this Thursday has been positive across Europe as a whole. London is up 1.88%; Paris, 0.22%; Frankfurt, 0.91%; and Milan, 0.10%.
For its part, a barrel of Brent stood at $85.43, 0.63% less, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at $80.69, 0.71%.
In the debt market, the yield on the Spanish bond maturing in 10 years has stood at 3.211%, compared to the 3.247% recorded at the close of Wednesday. In this way, the risk premium against German debt has stood at 80.6 basis points, 1.1 points less.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro has depreciated 0.55% against the dollar, reaching an exchange rate of 1.0861 'greenbacks' for each unit of the community currency.
