The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 opened Friday's session almost flat as investors digested corporate earnings and employment data in the US, awaiting further signals from monetary authorities on the timing of rate cuts.

Markets are also keeping an eye on China, amid expectations of a possible announcement of concrete economic stimulus measures, as the country enters the festive week of the Lunar New Year.

With no major macroeconomic references expected for the rest of the day, there will be interest "in the revision of the US CPI series for the last five years, in a market that is particularly sensitive to price data and which (...) has practically eliminated expectations of a rate cut in March (only 19% probability of -25 bp)," said Renta 4 analysts in a note to clients.

In this regard, the weekly US unemployment figure was released on Thursday, which seemed to confirm the strength of the labor market and therefore reinforces the perception that the Fed will not be in a hurry to cut rates.

In the week ahead, the focus will be on the release of the US consumer price index (CPI) for January, after several members of the Federal Reserve indicated that they do not consider it appropriate to lower interest rates until they are more confident that inflation is heading towards 2%.

At 0802 GMT on Friday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was down 5.40 points, or 0.05%, to 9,900.00 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.14%.

The Spanish index is set to close the week with a decline of 1.61%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.01%, BBVA gained 0.02%, Caixabank advanced 0.05%, Sabadell gained 0.45%, Bankinter gained 0.33%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.11%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.08%, Inditex advanced 0.05%, Iberdrola dropped 0.38%, Cellnex fell 0.60%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.26%.

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