After two sessions of declines, the Spanish IBEX 35 stock index was still in the doldrums on Wednesday in the face of the various uncertainties that beset the markets at the start of the second-quarter results season.

Investors continued to incorporate into their portfolio analysis the possibility of Donald Trump's electoral victory in the United States at the end of the year after surviving an assassination attempt, especially due to the possible worsening of tensions with China and the intensification of trade wars in general.

The cabals on the evolution of interest rates in the major economies also continued, following the release of a better-than-expected UK inflation data that could reduce bets that the Bank of England will cut interest rates for the first time since 2020 in August.

In any case, the stock market decline was capped by the probability that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut interest rates in September, which according to interest rate futures on LSEG's IRPR tool stands at 98%.

According to IRPR, markets currently expect a total of 64 points of rate cuts this year, which is just over two 0.25 percentage point cuts.

In terms of company results, Renta 4 highlighted those of Dutch ASML on Wednesday, "with weaker-than-consensus-expected 3Q24 sales and gross margin guidance, which could raise doubts about the AI boom that requires the technology the company sells."

"This could be compounded by further restrictions by the US to prevent companies such as ASML or Tokyo Electron (-8% share price) from continuing to allow China access to its advanced semis (semiconductor) technology," these analysts added.

ASML shares opened little changed in Wednesday's session.

In Spain, at 0715 GMT on Wednesday, the selective Spanish stock market index IBEX 35 was down 21.40 points, or 0.19%, to 11,069.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 0.45%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.05%, BBVA gained 0.17%, Caixabank ceded 0.08%, Sabadell gained 0.11%, Bankinter lost 0.33% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.23%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.13%, Inditex fell 0.65%, Iberdrola dropped 0.08%, Cellnex fell 0.24%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.07%.

Neinor was up 3%, after an update on the status of its pre-sales and an agreement to sell homes, while, on the other hand, Acerinox fell more than 3% in a context of falling iron ore prices, affected by the weak seasonal demand of the main consumer, China, and the growing world supply.

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