Spain's IBEX 35 stock index opened moderately lower on Tuesday as the previous day's bullish momentum petered out, while financial markets await further signals on the direction of interest rates on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the first minutes of the session there were many movements, in a session with a transitional tone until the arrival of two fundamental references in the future of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the United States Federal Reserve (Fed).

On Thursday, the ECB holds a meeting in which a cut in the cost of money is taken for granted, so the focus will be on comments on its future movements, and on Friday the monthly US employment report is published, which the Fed usually takes into account when gauging the state of the economy and inflation.

A number of U.S. labor market data will come before that report, including Tuesday's JOLTS job vacancy survey and the ADP private job creation figure.

"Both references will be a prelude to Friday's official employment report, a particularly relevant data to determine the number and pace of Fed rate cuts, after the weakness seen yesterday in ISM manufacturing, which resulted in moderation of IRRs (debt yields), T-bond (US Treasury benchmark bond) -11 bps to 4.4%, and which has raised again slightly above 50% the probability that the first Fed rate cut will be in September," said analysts at Renta 4.

In recent hours, bets have increased on a US interest rate cut after the summer following macroeconomic data showing further weakness in the country's economy.

In Europe, the only major indicator on Tuesday will be Germany's unemployment data, which could show a slight increase in the number of unemployed in May.

In the international context, the focus was on the provisional results of the Indian elections, which caused declines in the country's equities as they pointed to the possibility that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not obtain a large majority.

In Spain, at 07:15 GMT on Tuesday, the selective Spanish stock market IBEX 35 fell 47.50 points, or 0.42%, to 11,349.70 points, after registering a 0.66% advance on Monday. Meanwhile, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell by 0.33%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.23%, BBVA fell 1.66%, Caixabank gave up 0.60%, Sabadell fell 1.59%, Bankinter dropped 0.81% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.90%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.57%, Inditex fell 0.16%, Iberdrola dropped 0.16%, Cellnex fell 0.93%, and the oil company Repsol lost 1.42%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Javi West Larrañaga)