The pullback comes after three consecutive gains in the opening sessions of 2026, which pushed the index to a new record on Tuesday, adding to an almost 50% rally in 2025.
Geopolitics set the agenda on Wednesday. In Venezuela, Donald Trump stated that the country will "deliver" between 30 and 50 million barrels of crude oil to the United States following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend by U.S. forces. The news signals cooperation between Caracas' leadership and Washington and is contributing to a drop in oil prices.
However, developments regarding the Arctic were far from reassuring. The White House said that the President and his team are considering options to purchase Greenland, and that the use of the Armed Forces is "always an option."
The main European powers issued a joint declaration supporting Denmark and Greenland, asserting that the island belongs to its people, after Trump revived his interest in acquiring the territory – a goal he first floated in 2019 due to its strategic value for the U.S. military.
Asia also joined the fray after Beijing banned exports to Japan of dual-use goods with potential military applications, in response to a comment made in early November by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding Taiwan.
On the macro front, traders await eurozone December inflation data (1000 GMT) and, in the United States, the ADP (1315 GMT) and JOLTS (1500 GMT) reports, which will serve as a prelude to Friday's official jobs report.
Updates on the U.S. economy are key to adjusting the odds of rate cuts in the country. According to IRPR, the LSEG futures tool, the market is currently pricing in two 25-basis-point cuts in 2026, though the Fed is expected to keep borrowing costs unchanged at its late January meeting.
In this context, at 0812 GMT on Wednesday, Spain's IBEX 35 blue-chip index was down 32.60 points, or 0.18%, at 17,614.90, while the pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 index was up 0.05%.
In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.93%, BBVA fell 1.74%, Caixabank dropped 1.23%, Sabadell declined 0.94%, Bankinter slipped 1.02%, and Unicaja Banco lost 1.01%.
Among major non-financial stocks, Telefónica was down 0.38%, Inditex advanced 0.42%, Iberdrola gained 0.91%, Cellnex was little changed, and oil company Repsol lost 2.19% amid falling oil prices.
(Reporting by Tomás Cobos; editing by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)
