The IBEX 35 opened Monday lower and lost the support level of 11,700 points in a day without major catalysts, as traders await the U.S. CPI data to be released on Wednesday to fine-tune their bets on the interest rate cutting cycle.

Friday's better-than-expected US job creation data underpinned the image of the strength of the world's leading economy and thus punished equities, causing markets to reduce expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Given that the economic policies advanced by President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to the White House next Monday, are also expected to be inflationary, the Fed may have even less reason to reduce borrowing costs.

These expectations are reflected in LSEG data, according to which markets estimate that the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points (bps) in 2025, while last week's estimate was 37 bps. This is a very different scenario from that faced by the European Central Bank, which according to monetary futures will do so by around 88 bps, against a backdrop of weakness in the eurozone economy.

According to Bankinter analysts, in the second half of the week, investors will focus on the start of the US results season - with banks in first place - and concerns about the new occupant of the White House will be accentuated.

"Friday will start the fear of what Trump might do, who takes office the following Monday the 20th and may kick off his term by announcing inflationary measures," they say on their Telegram channel.

Thus, at 08:05 GMT on Monday, the selective Spanish stock market IBEX 35 fell 47.00 points, 0.40%, to 11,673.90 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.47%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.05%, BBVA gained 1.35%, Caixabank advanced 0.21%, Sabadell gained 1.34%, Bankinter gained 0.15%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.60%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.03%, Inditex dropped 1.38%, Iberdrola lost 1.06%, Cellnex fell 1.07%, and the oil company Repsol rose 1.45%.

(Information by Javi West Larrañaga; editing by Tomás Cobos).