The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 opened Tuesday's session in negative territory, losing the 11,000-point level for the second time in a week, while investors await the outcome of the French elections and macroeconomic news that could decide the course of interest rates.

On Tuesday, the June CPI for the Eurozone will be released, which according to a Reuters poll could show a moderation with respect to the previous month, both in the general and underlying rate, which would add to the signs that the European Central Bank (ECB) is looking for to continue with the cuts in the cost of loans.

"This data will follow the slowdown seen yesterday in Germany (2.2% vs 2.3%e and 2.4% previously), as well as the data known at the end of last week in countries such as France or Spain, which together should reinforce the possibility of 2 additional rate cuts by the ECB in the second half of the year, the first in September (60% probability of -25 bp)," explained the securities house Renta 4 in its daily report.

In this regard, ECB policymaker Pierre Wunsch said on Monday that the next rate cut would be easy, but that the doubt is in the subsequent decisions, and that further steps should only be taken once inflation is clearly heading towards the 2% target.

On the other hand, investors remained nervous about the political landscape in France, despite the brief relief of a worse-than-expected far-right result in the first round of elections. Among the main concerns surrounding the eventual new French government is the possibility of an increase in spending that could jeopardize the country's public finances.

The second round of the French legislative elections will be held on Sunday and its outcome will have reverberations in the rest of the continent and in the future of the Eurozone.

As for the United States, the market's focus will be on the release of the JOLTS employment data on Tuesday--for which signs of cooling are expected--and on the monthly labor market report to be released on Friday, looking for more clues on the Fed's interest rate cut schedule.

At 07:10 GMT on Tuesday, Spain's IBEX 35 was down 113.50 points, or 1.03%, to 10,943.50 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 0.51%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 1.45%, BBVA fell 0.63%, Caixabank dropped 0.59%, Sabadell fell 0.81%, Bankinter lost 0.26% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.84%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.65%, Inditex dropped 1.44%, Iberdrola dropped 0.73%, Cellnex fell 0.06%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.07%.

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