The main Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 extended on Thursday the losses of the two previous sessions, as anxiety over the danger of the United States going into default continued, aggravated by a warning from the Fitch agency.

The ratings firm announced on Wednesday a possible downgrade of the rating it assigns to US debt, which would materialize if an agreement is not reached in the difficult negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on the country's debt ceiling.

"Although (Kevin) McCarthy, the leader of the House of Representatives, is optimistic about the ability to avoid a default, (...) Fitch puts the US on 'credit watch', which could compromise its current AAA rating (we recall that in 2011, although there was no 'default' (suspension of payments), there was a rating downgrade, causing significant turbulence in financial markets)," said the securities firm Renta 4 in its daily report.

These analysts also point out that the latest available data on credit "do not point to a significant credit crunch", and also highlight the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the Fed (Federal Reserve), which "slightly moderate the market's complacent expectations about rate cuts in the second part of the year".

Fed policymakers "generally agreed" last month that the need for further rate hikes "was becoming less clear," and several said the quarter-percentage-point hike they approved could be their last, according to minutes of the May 2-3 meeting released Wednesday.

On the macroeconomic front, the focus will be on the revised first-quarter GDP report in the United States, which includes an important consumer price indicator, after German growth showed, against forecasts, a quarter-on-quarter drop of 0.3%, pushing the country into recession.

In this context, at 07:05 GMT on Thursday, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 fell 29.30 points, or 0.32%, to 9,134.20 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced 0.01%.

If it closes at current levels, it would be the third consecutive decline for the Ibex, which is at its lowest levels since the beginning of May.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.81%, BBVA fell 0.22%, Caixabank advanced 0.58%, Sabadell fell 1.37%, Bankinter dropped 0.79% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.75%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.20%, Inditex dropped 0.26%, Iberdrola lost 0.17%, Cellnex fell 0.19%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.97%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Flora Gómez)