The Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 moved away from the 10,000-point support level recovered the day before, on a day when the main focus of interest will be on the statements made by members of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed).

In recent weeks, the markets have been revising their hopes for rapid cuts in the Fed's interest rates, after indicators such as Friday's job creation report showed a strong economy in which the danger of a rebound in inflation persists.

Investors still expect the Fed to carry out a series of rate cuts this year, but are now less certain about when the central bank will start reducing borrowing costs and how far rates will fall.

Against this backdrop, Wednesday will scrutinize comments from several Fed members participating in public events, including Adriana Kugler, Susan Collins, Michelle Bowman and Thomas Barkin.

Messages of monetary caution were also coming from Europe, where Isabel Schnabel, a member of the European Central Bank's (ECB) Governing Council, said the central bank must be patient in cutting interest rates, as inflation could again spike and recent data confirm fears that the "last mile" to slow price growth will be the most difficult.

Elsewhere, the focus in the European morning was on companies' quarterly results. Among them, French oil company TotalEnergies -- which announced a 31% drop in net profit, but increased its dividend by 7.1% -- and its Finnish competitor Equinor -- which beat market forecasts, but reduced shareholder remuneration -- stood out.

In the green energy sector, the figures of the Danish wind power company Vestas -- which will not pay a dividend and beat forecasts --, of the German energy company Siemens Energy -- which achieved a profit of 1.7 billion dollars due to extraordinary gains -- and of the Danish renewable energy group Ørsted, which cut its capacity and investment target and suspended its dividend.

In Spain, at 0802 GMT on Wednesday, the selective stock market index Ibex-35 fell 24.10 points, or 0.28%, to 9,978.90 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced 0.11%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.47%, BBVA fell 0.83%, Caixabank ceded 1.06%, Sabadell fell 0.74%, Bankinter dropped 0.39%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.96%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.27%, Inditex dropped 0.33%, Iberdrola gained 0.51%, Cellnex fell 0.18%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.59%.

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