The Spanish IBEX 35 stock index was heading towards the end of April with little change in its monthly accumulated performance and a certain downward bias due to the unfavorable reception to the quarterly figures of Caixabank and Santander, while it awaits two important events in the United States that could tip the balance.

Although investors do not expect any changes in the Federal Reserve's (Fed) interest rate meeting that ends on Wednesday, they will be very attentive to the comments of its main leader on the next steps, in an environment of growing fear that the central bank will adopt a tough stance due to the persistence of US inflation.

On Friday, as markets digest the Fed's news, U.S. employment figures for April will be released, which could serve as a thermometer on the strength of the economy and, consequently, price trends.

In the meantime, markets will be looking ahead to data from the eurozone, where April CPI is due for release on Tuesday.

"These data show once again that the road to the 2% inflation target will be bumpy, and that it will cost to go 'the last mile'," said analysts at the Renta 4 brokerage.

"In any case, we do not think this will change expectations of a first ECB rate cut on 6-June (90% probability of -25bp), although from that first cut, the data and the Fed will determine the amount of the total cut in 2024 (for the moment we maintain our expectation of 4 ECB cuts vs market expecting 3)," they added.

In the Spanish market, the focus was on the results of two large banks, Santander and Caixabank, which fell 0.9% and 2.5% at the open.

Both stocks have recorded significant rallies so far this year --25% in the case of Santander, 34% in that of Caixabank--, so Thursday's movements would have a certain profit-taking component.

In the rest of the banking sector, BBVA gained 0.28%, Sabadell gained 0.20%, Bankinter lost 0.57% and Unicaja Banco rose 0.82%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.05%, Inditex fell 0.30%, Iberdrola gained 0.21%, Cellnex fell 0.47%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.07%.

Overall, at 07:05 GMT on Tuesday, the selective Spanish stock market index IBEX 35 fell 23.60 points, or 0.21%, to 11,077.20 points. On Monday, the index touched the highest intraday levels since August 2015.

After an advance of almost 11% in March, the IBEX 35 would close April, at current levels, with an advance of 0.11%.

Meanwhile, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European equities advanced 0.06% on Tuesday.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Javi West Larrañaga)