19 May - Spain's main selective Ibex-35 opened higher on Friday as markets remain expectant about the possibility of a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avert the crisis.

An air of growing optimism surrounds the talks between US President Joe Biden and the Republican leader of Congress, Kevin McCarthy, and the possibility of avoiding a default that, according to experts, would drag the world's leading economy into a catastrophic recession.

Both figures expect to reach an agreement on Sunday, after Biden arrives from the G7 summit being held in Hiroshima, Japan.

The day before, weekly US jobless claims were released, showing a larger-than-expected decline.

Both pieces of news affected bets on the country's Fed funding costs, with CME's FedWatch tool giving a 36% chance that the central bank will raise rates by 25 basis points at its June meeting, up from 10% last week, in line with its leadership's hawkish messaging.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and ECB President Christine Lagarde are scheduled to speak at roundtable discussions throughout the day.

In this context, at 07:05 GMT on Friday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 was up 25.80 points, or 0.28%, to 9,238.90 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.40%.

On a weekly basis, the index is heading for a slight rise of 0.05%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.71%, BBVA gained 0.37%, Caixabank gave up 0.18%, Sabadell fell 0.06%, Bankinter gained 0.27%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.11%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.25%, Inditex advanced 0.57%, Iberdrola gained 0.26%, Cellnex gained 0.48%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.19%.

(Information by José Muñoz, edited by Tomás Cobos).