The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 started off in the negative on Tuesday in view of profit taking after the previous day's rally and some caution ahead of the Federal Reserve news and the U.S. employment report to be released this week.

The minutes of the last meeting of the US central bank, to be released on Wednesday, December 4, could indicate the direction of US interest rates in 2023, while the debate continues on whether the time has come for monetary tightening to stop in order to avoid a severe economic contraction.

More clues about the Fed's likely course of action will also come in Friday's US job creation data, which will worry investors if it shows greater-than-expected strength, as the strength of the labor market - and thus the economy - gives the central bank room to turn off the money tap.

Analysts at the Spanish securities firm Renta 4 pointed out that, all in all, it is "a generalized environment of low trading volumes (...) with the progressive reopening of markets".

Today, the US and UK stock exchanges are back in business, while in China there was a positive trend, in the midst of a wave of COVID contagions following the reopening of the country.

Chinese state media on Tuesday played down the seriousness of the wave of coronavirus cases sweeping the country, which caused a significant contraction in the activity of Chinese factories in December.

At 08:02 GMT on Tuesday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was down 26.70 points, or 0.29%, to 8,345.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.60%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.54%, BBVA fell 0.61%, Caixabank dropped 0.51%, Sabadell fell 0.29%, and Bankinter lost 1.10%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica opened practically unchanged, Inditex fell 0.35%, Iberdrola dropped 0.54%, Cellnex fell 0.35%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.23%, in an environment in which the price of a barrel of crude oil was rising.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Flora Gómez)