The Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 lost the 10,200 level recovered the day before and remained in the sideways phase of the last few weeks, as fears grow that the hopes of rapid interest rate cuts that boosted the market in the final stretch of 2023 were excessive.

The strength shown by the U.S. labor market on Friday and recent comments from Fed policymakers seem to point to a more gradual pace of borrowing cost cuts than the market wants, amid uncertainty about the evolution of inflation.

In this sense, market observers do not expect major movements in the coming days, awaiting the inflation figures to be published in the United States on Thursday, which could bring a rebound (from 3.1% in November to 3.2% in December) in the year-on-year CPI.

"November and December were recklessly bullish (ES-50 +7.9% and +3.2%; S&P500 +8.9% and +4.4%, respectively) based on a firm faith that rates will come down hard and fast in 2024. We insist: we believe this will not happen," said Bankinter analysts.

"The timing will be slower and the depth of cuts lower for 2 reasons: (i) Inflation will pick up during the first half of the year. We started to see this last week. (ii) With full employment and comfortable (US) or sufficient (Europe, by its own standards) growth, central banks feel no pressure to cut rates," they added.

Elsewhere, investors continue to await the start of the fourth-quarter earnings season, with several U.S. banks reporting on Friday -- including Bank of New York Mellon Group, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

In this context, at 0815 GMT on Tuesday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 fell 63.80 points, or 0.60%, to 10,147.40 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced 0.06%.

In the Spanish market, the attention was focused on the plasma derivatives group Grifols, after the investment fund Gotham City Research stated on Tuesday that the company's debt ratios are actually much higher than those officially declared, which makes its shares "uninvestable".

At 9:24 a.m. Madrid time, Grifols shares were still trading at auction, pointing to a drop of more than 30%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.62%, BBVA fell 1.60%, Caixabank dropped 1.63%, Sabadell fell 0.49%, Bankinter dropped 0.03%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.48%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.35%, Inditex fell 0.18%, Iberdrola dropped 2.21%, Cellnex fell 0.23%, and the oil company Repsol lost 2.29%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia).