The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 opened Wednesday's trading session at around the 9,400-point level and was heading for its fourth consecutive day of losses, following the US credit downgrade, which has plunged the markets into a new wave of nervousness.

The rating agency Fitch downgraded the US credit rating by one notch on Tuesday night, from the highest rating (AAA) to the second highest level (AA+), a decision criticized by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as "arbitrary".

Fitch's decision highlights the recurring fiscal problems of the world's leading economy, following the hundreds of billions of cash injected into the global economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nevertheless, investors continued to take refuge in the safety of the fixed-income market, and some analysts say the effect of the credit downgrade will not be long-lasting in the long term.

On the macroeconomic front, Wednesday will see the release of the July ADP employment indicator for the US, an appetizer for the full labor market report due on Friday.

At 07:03 GMT on Wednesday, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 was down 113.60 points, or 1.22%, to 9,387.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 1.19%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 1.64%, BBVA fell 1.71%, Caixabank gave up 1.26%, Sabadell fell 2.60% and Bankinter dropped 1.03%.

Unicaja Banco fell 7.21%, after the investment fund Oceanwood closed the sale of its 7% stake in the entity at a discount of more than 5%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.52%, Inditex dropped 1.75%, Iberdrola dropped 0.81%, Cellnex fell 0.85%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.04%.

(Information by José Muñoz; edited by Tomás Cobos)