The Ibex-35 opened lower on Monday, on a day in which markets traded cautiously due to monetary uncertainty following the central banks' decisions and messages last week and expectations of a rate cut for 2024.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday paved the way for rate cuts in 2024, sparking pent-up euphoria in equities that was tempered on Friday following remarks from the New York Fed president. The European Central Bank, meanwhile, stuck to its hard-line rhetoric on Thursday as it rejected speculation that it will loosen current tough financing conditions.

This week, investors are awaiting a key US inflation figure due on Friday, which could underpin expectations of interest rate cuts in the US, as well as what the Bank of Japan will decide on its ultra-loose monetary policy on Tuesday.

"All the data will be analyzed with a magnifying glass to determine to what extent they confirm Powell's 'dovish' speech (in favor of monetary easing) last Wednesday," Renta 4 analysts said in a note to clients.

In addition to the US PCE index, the macroeconomic data of reference for the week will be the Eurozone CPI (Tuesday), the GFK survey of consumer confidence in Germany, UK CPI and consumer confidence data for the US and the Eurozone (Wednesday).

As for Monday, at 0900 GMT the IFO business survey for December in Germany will be released and at 1500 GMT, the NAHB housing market index in the US.

At 0809 GMT, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 fell 42.50 points, or 0.42%, to 10,053.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.35%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.74%, BBVA fell 0.53%, Caixabank advanced 0.67%, Sabadell fell 0.27%, Bankinter gained 0.14%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.16%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.06%, Inditex dropped 0.18%, Iberdrola lost 0.13%, Cellnex fell 1.05%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.07%.

Meliá fell 2.36% following a report in the Cinco Días newspaper that the company is negotiating with banks to refinance more than 1.1 billion in debt.

(Information by Benjamín Mejías Valencia and Javi West Larrañaga; edited by Tomás Cobos)