The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 opened Monday with a timid advance, in a scenario of caution due to fears of an open war between Israel and Iran that could widen the conflict of the last six months in Gaza.

As expected, Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack against Israel over the weekend - in response to the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus attributed to Israel - but there was only moderate material damage and world powers have called for restraint on Israel, while the United States has indicated that it will not support an Israeli counterattack.

Nevertheless, "investors will continue to wait to see what Israel's reaction is, and if there are reprisals and with it an extension of the conflict in the Middle East", said analysts at the Renta 4 brokerage firm.

"We could see additional advances in the price of crude oil (Brent could be affected both by Iran's status as a producer and by the risk of closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than 20% of crude oil passes) as well as refuge in public debt, gold and the dollar".

On the macroeconomic and monetary front, the focus of the week will be on the comments of the Federal Reserve (Fed) leaders, after the high inflation and the strength of US employment in the last few weeks have pushed back the prospects of rate cuts in the world's leading economic power.

Among the most relevant macro indicators for the week are U.S. retail sales (Monday), the ZEW survey on the German economy and China's GDP (Tuesday), and the eurozone's final CPI for March (Wednesday).

Also, the trickle of first-quarter corporate results in the United States will continue with figures from, among others, Goldman Sachs (Monday), Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America Corp, United Airlines (Tuesday), US Bancorp (Wednesday), Blackstone, Netflix (Thursday), American Express and Procter & Gamble Co (Friday).

In Spain, the IBEX results season will start on Thursday with the Bankinter report.

Overall, at 07:15 GMT on Monday, the selective Spanish stock market index IBEX 35 was up 8.70 points, or 0.08%, to 10,694.70 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.17%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.18%, BBVA gained 0.10%, Caixabank advanced 0.77%, Sabadell gained 1.29%, Bankinter gained 0.58%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.18%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.40%, Inditex advanced 0.23%, Iberdrola gained 0.31%, Cellnex fell 1.13%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.03%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Javi West Larrañaga)