10 May - The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 recovered on Wednesday from the previous day's slight technical cut, in a session in which the focus will be on April inflation in the United States, as the corporate earnings season moves towards its end.

With April US CPI data due for release at 12:30 GMT, investors will be looking to clear up the unknown left by the Federal Reserve last week, which opened the door to a possible pause in interest rates after raising them by 25 basis points.

Economists polled by Reuters on average expect the headline CPI reading to show a slight slowdown, standing at a year-on-year increase of 5.5% (vs +5.6% in March), with no change in its underlying reading (+5%).

"A higher than expected reading could moderate rate cut expectations for the second half of the year (currently around -50/ -75 bp), or even pressure the Fed for further rate hikes (data-dependent pause) in light of unabated inflation and resilient employment, although additional data (both CPI and May employment report) will be available ahead of its next meeting on June 14," noted Renta 4 analysts in a daily note.

Still on the monetary front, the prospect of a pause in rate hikes on this side of the Atlantic seems to be further away than in the US, with recent statements by several members of the European Central Bank insisting on the need to maintain the tightening cycle in the face of persistent inflation.

Wednesday saw the final reading of Germany's April CPI, which was unchanged from its initial reading.

At 07:05 GMT on Wednesday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was up 19.20 points, or 0.21%, to 9,202.40 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.09%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 1.10%, BBVA gained 1.46%, Caixabank advanced 1.02%, Sabadell gained 1.19%, Bankinter gained 1.44%, and Unicaja Banco rose 1.30%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.22%, Inditex fell 0.48%, Iberdrola dropped 0.38%, Cellnex fell 0.67%, and the oil company Repsol rose 1.00%.

Fluidra, which rose 3.04% after maintaining its forecasts for the year as a whole, despite the fact that its revenues and profits contracted in the first quarter due to the lower demand for new residential swimming pools, stood out on the upside.

On the other side of the table, Laboratorios Rovi stood out, which dropped 3.29% after publishing a drop of 11% in its profit and 10% in its ebitda for the first quarter, which led the company to forecast a reduction in its revenues and results in 2023.

(Information by Darío Fernández; edited by Tomás Cobos)