The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 opened Wednesday with a hesitant trend, as investors await comments from the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which could bring more signs of monetary tightening in a scenario of stubborn inflation.

The UK inflation data - 8.7% in the headline index, higher than the 8.4% expected, and 7.1% in the core, compared to the 6.8% expected - will not help to allay fears that the cycle of interest rate hikes around the world to combat inflation will continue.

Investors will get further clues in this regard from Jerome Powell's speech to the US Congress on Wednesday (1400 GMT.).

"We expect the Fed chairman to reiterate his speech last week when he made a 'hawkish' pause by keeping rates unchanged for the first time since March 2022, but raising the rate ceiling of his 'dot plot' from 5.1% to 5.6% in Dec-23, which hints that he expects two more hikes to control inflation, on which he still sees upside risks," said brokerage Renta 4.

The dot plot is a document that reflects where Fed members (anonymously) expect interest rates to be over the next few years.

Renta 4 analysts added that the market, however, continues to opt for "the disinflationary narrative and only expects one more hike (74% probability +25 bps on July 26), giving a minimal probability (8%) that the year will end at the 5.5%-5.75% indicated by the dot plot.

Once Powell's speech is over, markets will focus their attention on the Bank of England meeting on Thursday, which is widely expected to raise rates again.

At 07:17 GMT on Wednesday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 was up 5.00 points, or 0.05%, to 9,444.80 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 0.12%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.66%, BBVA gained 0.77%, Caixabank advanced 0.67%, Sabadell gained 1.13%, Bankinter gained 0.99%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.80%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.33%, Inditex advanced 0.15%, Iberdrola dropped 0.63%, Cellnex fell 0.91%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.37%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos, edited by José Muñoz)