Jan 29 (Reuters) - The Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 began Monday's session with a slight downward trend, in a day of transition awaiting the meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and several important macroeconomic indicators.

On the geopolitical front, signs of the danger of an extension of the conflict between Israel and Hamas intensified, after a missile attack by the Houthis caused a fire on a fuel tanker in the Red Sea and a drone attack killed three US soldiers in Jordan.

This backdrop drove up the price of oil, benefiting fossil fuel companies and weighing on other stocks.

In any case, investors are likely to remain cautious until Wednesday, when they will hear comments from the Fed that could refine the forecasts for the future course of interest rates, which the central bank is not expected to change this week.

Markets have tempered expectations for U.S. interest rate cuts this year in light of strong economic data and the Fed leadership's dismissal of speculation about a rapid turn in the cycle.

According to CME's FedWatch tool, markets currently project a 48% chance of a rate cut in March, down from 86% at the end of December.

In addition to the Fed meeting, there will also be a Bank of England meeting on Thursday, where expectations are similar.

"In neither case do we expect any changes in terms of interest rates, although we will be watching for comments from both Powell and Bailey that we understand could continue to cool market expectations for rate cuts, which remain overly optimistic in our view both in terms of the size of the cuts and the timing of the start of the cuts," said the Renta 4 brokerage in its daily report.

"We expect the Fed to cut rates 4 times in 2024, with the first cut in June, versus the market forecasting 6 cuts starting in March," it added.

Otherwise, the week is loaded with important macroeconomic indicators -- with special interest in the US employment report on Friday -- as well as results from the Spanish banking sector, with figures from BBVA (Tuesday), Santander (Wednesday), Sabadell (Thursday) and Caixabank (Friday).

At 0815 GMT on Monday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 was down 9.00 points, or 0.09%, to 9,927.60 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.02%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.26%, BBVA gained 0.30%, Caixabank advanced 0.36%, Sabadell gained 0.51%, Bankinter gained 0.38%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.17%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.10%, Inditex lost 0.26%, Iberdrola gained 0.05%, Cellnex fell 1.15%, and the oil company Repsol rose 2.79%, benefiting from the rebound in crude oil prices.

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