The IBEX 35 remained in a holding pattern on Monday as investors awaited concrete developments on the trade front, amid mixed signals from U.S. President Donald Trump regarding tariffs, which have once again been postponed.

Concerns over U.S. foreign trade policies prevented the Spanish stock index from reclaiming the psychologically significant 14,000-point mark, which it briefly surpassed last week.

As the market looks ahead to the July 9 deadline set by Washington for its trade partners to submit their proposals, Trump stated he is finalizing several agreements and will notify other countries of increased tariff rates before July 9. However, he added that the higher tariffs would not take effect until August 1.

Additionally, Trump threatened to impose an extra 10% tariff on any country aligning with the "anti-American policies" of the BRICS group, whose leaders began a summit in Brazil on Sunday.

Meanwhile, analysts at Bankinter note that the week will be light on major developments, suggesting that caution may prevail as investors await greater clarity on various fronts.

"The most notable aspect of this week is that nothing truly significant is expected--neither on the macroeconomic nor corporate front. So it's a time for waiting and reflection. These are seasonally sensitive dates as activity and trading volumes begin to slow, especially towards the end of July, but the decline starts to become noticeable from mid-month, which is already next week," they commented on their Telegram channel.

The main macroeconomic indicators this week will be the Sentix investor confidence index and eurozone retail sales (Monday), along with the weekly U.S. jobless claims report (Thursday). Looking further ahead, financial markets are also awaiting the corporate earnings reports due in the second half of July.

Against this backdrop, as of 0702 GMT on Monday, Spain's IBEX 35 was down 5.20 points, or 0.04%, at 13,967.80, while the pan-European blue-chip index FTSE Eurofirst 300 edged up 0.03%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.03%, BBVA slipped 0.19%, Caixabank fell 0.03%, Sabadell gained 0.42%, Bankinter was down 0.18%, and Unicaja Banco advanced 0.20%.

Among leading non-financial stocks, Telefónica dropped 0.11%, Inditex edged up 0.02%, Iberdrola lost 0.19%, Cellnex fell 0.21%, and oil major Repsol declined 0.32%.

(Reporting by Tomás Cobos; editing by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)