The US CPI report helped to improve the mood among many investors, as it pointed to an easing of inflation in the world's leading economy and caused markets to project further cuts in the cost of debt by the Federal Reserve and to depreciate bonds.
According to LSEG data, on Monday markets estimated that the Fed would cut rates by 25 basis points (bps) in 2025 as a whole, while on Thursday the forecast rose to 37 bps.
The start of the US earnings season also left traders with a good taste in their mouths, as good figures released by JPMorgan, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs helped the country's main stock indices to soar.
Good results and outlooks from Taiwanese semiconductor company TSMC and jewelry company Richemont released on Thursday could also provide support for traders, who will also be keeping an eye on figures from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley later in the day.
On the macro front, the day will see the release of the euro zone balance of trade data (1000 GMT) and, in the US, the Philadelphia Fed activity index, retail sales and weekly unemployment data (1330 GMT), among others.
With this optimism for equities in the background, Bankinter analysts expect "the bullish inertia" to hold during the session, at least until the release of the US macro data.
"The risk is that U.S. Retail Sales will beat expectations, which is not unlikely, but that would slow down the rebounds, not reverse them into setbacks," they point out in their Telegram channel, while warning of possible profit-taking in the following session.
Thus, at 0805 GMT on Thursday, the selective Spanish stock market IBEX 35 was up 60.80 points, or 0.51%, to 11,959.30 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.62%.
With Thursday's rise, the IBEX 35, which has not exceeded 12,000 points since the beginning of December, has now risen for three consecutive sessions.
In the banking sector, Santander rose 1.08%, BBVA gained 1.06%, Caixabank gave up 0.46%, Sabadell gained 1.62%, Bankinter gained 0.67% and Unicaja Banco rose 0.30%.
Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.28%, Inditex advanced 1.07%, Iberdrola lost 0.41%, Cellnex gained 0.94%, and the oil company Repsol lost 1.19%.
(Information by Javi West Larrañaga; editing by Tomás Cobos).