The IBEX 35 opened Monday with a bullish bias, in a session marked by caution over geopolitical tensions and a fresh record high for gold, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve meeting.

Although tensions between the United States and Europe over Greenland had eased, the possibility of US sanctions on Iran and ongoing concerns over Washington's tariff threats against France and Canada continued to fuel risk aversion, underpinning the appeal of the safe-haven metal.

In recent weeks, skepticism about decisions made by the US government has intensified, weighing on the country's assets in financial markets.

Over the weekend, Washington said it would impose a 100% tariff on Canada if it proceeded with a trade deal with China. It has also threatened to slap 200% tariffs on French wines and champagnes, in an effort to pressure French President Emmanuel Macron to join its Peace Board initiative.

Elsewhere, the yen remained in focus amid the possibility of a joint intervention by the United States and Japan to halt the currency's decline.

Meanwhile, the weekly agenda is packed, with the Federal Reserve meeting as the main event.

Analysts at brokerage Renta 4 noted in a morning report the "near-zero probability that the Fed will cut rates this Wednesday given that employment is not particularly weak and inflation is not fully under control (3% probability of a rate cut, with the next 25 bp cut not fully priced in until July, and expectations for total cuts this year limited to -46 bp)."

Additionally, several key macroeconomic data releases are scheduled: the Ifo survey in Germany on Monday; the Conference Board consumer confidence reading in the United States on Tuesday; European confidence surveys on Thursday; and, on Friday, consumer price indexes for Spain and Germany as well as eurozone GDP.

On the corporate front, earnings will be reported by Ryanair (Monday); Texas Instruments, UnitedHealth, Boeing, and General Motors (Tuesday); ASML, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and AT&T (Wednesday); STMicroelectronics, Deutsche Bank, ING, and Apple (Thursday); and CaixaBank (Friday).

Against this backdrop, and after hitting a record closing high of 17,695.7 points on January 14, at 08:05 GMT on Monday the Spanish blue-chip index IBEX 35 was up 30.90 points, or 0.18%, to 17,575.30 points, while the pan-European large-cap index FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.10%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.27%, BBVA gained 0.19%, CaixaBank advanced 0.05%, Sabadell was up 0.60%, Bankinter gained 0.07%, and Unicaja Banco added 0.14%.

Among major non-financial stocks, Telefónica rose 0.71%, Inditex slipped 0.11%, Iberdrola gained 0.60%, Cellnex was up 0.23%, and oil company Repsol advanced 0.51%.

(Reporting by Tomás Cobos, editing by Jorge Ollero Castela)