The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 opened Thursday taking profits, breaking, like the European stock markets, with three consecutive sessions of gains.

The minutes of the Federal Reserve's last monetary policy meeting, published on Wednesday, contained a warning to the markets that excessive optimism about the possible evolution of interest rates could be counterproductive.

"The market is discounting a 25 bp hike at the next meeting (Feb. 1), one or two more 25 bp hikes in the next few meetings, and a possible lowering by the end of 2023. A lowering at the end of this year is something that, however, no Fed member is contemplating," said the Renta 4 securities house in its daily analysis note.

On the other hand, markets continue to watch how China's COVID-19 developments are being handled after the withdrawal of its severe measures, which is causing signs of concern in the United States and other countries about the world's second largest economy.

Macroeconomic data on Wednesday confirmed that the European bloc's economy is in recession, albeit without the severity that had been feared, as electricity and gas prices retreated thanks to a milder start to winter.

Markets will be looking ahead to Thursday's battery of data releases, including the key US ADP private employment data for December and the Eurozone producer price index.

In this context, at 0805 GMT on Thursday, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 fell 26.10 points, or 0.30%, to 8,533.70 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.32%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 1.42%, BBVA fell 0.66%, Caixabank ceded 1.27%, Sabadell fell 0.96%, and Bankinter dropped 0.54%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.45%, Inditex advanced 0.65%, Iberdrola dropped 0.18%, Cellnex gained 0.57%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.69%.

(Information by Flora Gómez; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia).