The Ibex-35 was slightly lower at Monday's opening and remained trapped in the trading zone in which it has been moving for the last month, awaiting news on the next steps of the major central banks and international policy.

Diego Morín, analyst at IG, highlights the "decaffeinated tone" of the start of 2024, after the biggest annual rise in 14 years in the Spanish stock market.

"The situation may seem logical in a complex context, as geopolitical tensions continue to escalate and (there is) a certain 'exhaustion' of a vertical rise from the October floor," Morín said.

Financial markets have been concerned about the problems in the transit of goods in the Red Sea, which has been disrupted by the Houthi attacks in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, raising the price of oil and contributing to the fear of a widening of the war.

Hopes for rapid interest rate cuts in 2024 also suffered a slight correction on Friday with the release of a better-than-expected employment report in the United States, where December inflation figures will be released this week.

Elsewhere, on the microeconomic front, the focus will be on the start of the fourth-quarter earnings season, with several U.S. banks releasing reports on Friday--including Bank of New York Mellon Group, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

At 08:02 GMT on Monday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was down 22.70 points, or 0.22%, to 10,141.80 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 0.14%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.58%, BBVA fell 0.33%, Caixabank advanced 0.05%, Sabadell gained 0.08%, Bankinter gained 0.33%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.32%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.08%, Inditex advanced 0.16%, Iberdrola lost 0.21%, Cellnex fell 0.61%, and the oil company Repsol lost 1.13%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos)