The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 opened with falls on Thursday, in a day of hangover after the interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the words of its chairman, Jerome Powell, in which he predicted fewer cuts for 2025.

Powell signaled that the Fed will slow the pace of falling borrowing costs, given the relative stability of unemployment and positive steps in terms of lower inflation.

The US central bank now foresees only two quarter-percentage point rate cuts through the end of 2025.

According to Bankinter analysts' calculations, the Fed's cutting cycle would end in March 2026, with benchmark rates at 3.50 and 3.75%.

"(That) will lead to the ECB not technically being able to go lower than 2.25/2.40% (deposit/credit), where it will end as soon as April 2025," they say on their Telegram channel.

As for equities, Bankinter analysts estimate that the stock markets will trade very cold during the day and for the short term.

"With inflations resisting to pull back and rates falling less than expected, stock markets offer little upside after such a good 2024," they say on their Telegram channel.

On the macroeconomic front, at 1330 GMT, US third-quarter final GDP will be released--"which will once again remind us of the strength of the US cycle," according to the Renta 4 brokerage--along with weekly unemployment and the Philadelphia Fed index for December.

Attention will also be focused on the meetings of the Bank of England, the Norwegian central bank and the Riksbank of Sweden, where traders expect them to maintain rates in the first two cases and uncertainty in the last one, as they estimate a 50% probability for a quarter percentage point cut and the same for maintaining rates.

Thus, at 0815 GMT on Thursday, the selective Spanish stock market IBEX 35 fell 206.90 points, or 1.78%, to 11,411.00 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 1.29%.

The banking sector led the corrections: Santander lost 3.33%, BBVA fell 2.36%, Caixabank gave up 1.20%, Sabadell fell 1.58%, Bankinter dropped 0.83% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.24%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 1.05%, Inditex dropped 1.33%, Iberdrola dropped 1.48%, Cellnex fell 2.53%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.99%.

(Information by Javi West Larrañaga; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia).