Mar 7 (Reuters) - The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 opened Thursday with a slight downward trend a day marked by central banks, with attention focused on the second part of the speech of the president of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB), also at the gates of several important macroeconomic data.

This Thursday it will be the ECB's turn to decide whether to change the benchmark interest rate (1315 GMT), and everything suggests that it will keep it unchanged at the record level of 4.0% and will not rush to cut it in the following meetings. However, everything could change if macroeconomic readings point to a slowdown in growth while price moderation continues.

"At the January meeting Lagarde stated, as did Powell, that greater conviction about inflation control is needed to initiate rate cuts," said analysts at Renta4.

"The recent Eurozone bank lending survey shows a timid recovery in January, which means there is no undue rush to start lowering rates, which squares with our expectation of a first cut in June (...) the market has adjusted its expectations to ours, lowering the expected rate cuts for 2024 to 3-4 (vs 6-7 at the close of 2023) with the first in June (63% probability)."

Following the ECB announcement, its president, Christine Lagarde, will appear at a press conference at 1345 GMT.

Regarding the Fed, there were no unexpected surprises on the first day of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's appearance before the US Congress, and the general expectation is that he will repeat the same message on Thursday, indicating the need for more macroeconomic data confirming that inflation is under control before any cuts.

On the macroeconomic front, US weekly jobless claims will be released on Thursday, ahead of Friday's monthly employment report, which the Fed will be watching closely.

After rebounding 0.63% the day before, at 08:15 GMT on Thursday the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 fell 11.70 points, or 0.11%, to 10,185.50 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.31%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.59%, BBVA gained 0.35%, Caixabank advanced 0.23%, Sabadell gained 1.87%, Bankinter gained 0.36%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.76%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.18%, Inditex dropped 2.15%, Iberdrola gained 0.79%, Cellnex fell 0.50%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.52%.

Rovi stood out on the upside, after announcing that it is studying the sale of its business to third parties.

(Information by José Muñoz; edited in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)