U.S. President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced on Tuesday that he would temporarily suspend an operation intended to escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress toward a comprehensive deal with Iran, without providing further details. There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.
Trump's announcement came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Tuesday that the United States has achieved its objectives in its military campaign against Iran.
'The latest news regarding the U.S.-Iran conflict invites a certain degree of optimism, helping to ease oil prices and boosting equity markets,' Bankinter analysts noted on their Telegram channel.
However, unlike global equity markets, European indices continue to trade below their pre-war highs, as investors perceive Europe to be more exposed to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz than the United States.
On the technology front, Advanced Micro Devices shares surged 16.5% in U.S. after-hours trading after the company estimated second-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, driven by strong demand for its core chips as cloud computing firms accelerate spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Also on the previous day, Samsung Electronics, the world's leading memory chip manufacturer, saw its market value reach 1,500 trillion won (1.03 trillion dollars) in early Wednesday trading in Seoul, following the sharp gains recorded the previous day in the U.S. by AI-related stocks.
On the macroeconomic front, investors will be monitoring the release of the final composite and services PMI indices for April in Spain, Germany, and the eurozone, in addition to the ADP employment data in the United States later today, ahead of the April non-farm payrolls due on Friday.
At 0709 GMT, the Spanish benchmark IBEX 35 was up 236.80 points, or 1.34%, at 17,904.50 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of leading European shares advanced 1.23%.
In the banking sector, Santander rose 2.58%, BBVA gained 1.89%, Caixabank advanced 1.58%, Sabadell climbed 2.17%, Bankinter appreciated by 1.62%, and Unicaja Banco rose 1.93%.
Among the large-cap non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 1.17%, Inditex advanced 1.11%, Iberdrola appreciated by 0.15%, Cellnex rose 0.78%, and the oil major Repsol shed 1.92%.
(Reporting by Benjamín Mejías Valencia; editing by Jorge Ollero Castela)
