The Ibex-35 opened Wednesday with a new decline, which if sustained at the close would be the third in a row, and fell to its lowest levels in almost two months, with almost all the stocks in the Spanish stock index in negative territory.

Contributing to the trend were disappointing data from the Chinese economy and statements from the major central banks that pushed back the start of interest rate cuts, as well as lingering concerns over the Houthi attacks on Red Sea trade.

The world's second largest economy showed 5.2% year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter, below expectations, with a weak real estate sector and sluggish consumption.

On the monetary front, hopes for an early cut in the cost of debt continued to fade, pushing fixed income yields higher, after a Federal Reserve policymaker said that it cannot be taken for granted that US interest rates will begin to fall in March.

Specifically, Christopher Waller said the country is within striking distance of the Fed's 2% inflation target, but that the central bank should not rush to cut benchmark rates until it is clear that inflation will remain low.

In the same vein were comments from ECB President Christine Lagarde, who said that the European Central Bank is on track to bring inflation back to its 2% target, but that victory is not yet within reach, warning that erroneous market interest rate projections could be counterproductive in the fight against inflation.

As if these signs were not enough, the UK CPI, released on Wednesday morning, came in two tenths above forecasts and cast doubt on the trend of price moderation.

The session will also see final Eurozone inflation figures for December (1000 GMT), as well as US retail sales and import prices (1330 GMT).

Against this backdrop, at 0815 GMT on Wednesday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 fell 104.60 points, or 1.05%, to 9,889.50 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 1.20%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 1.43%, BBVA fell 1.50%, Caixabank ceded 1.07%, Sabadell fell 1.11%, Bankinter dropped 1.33% and Unicaja Banco lost 1.22%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.11%, Inditex dropped 1.21%, Iberdrola dropped 0.91%, Cellnex fell 1.39%, and the oil company Repsol lost 1.66%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)