Spain's Ibex-35 stock index bucked the global bearish trend with a positive opening on Wednesday, following the previous session's surprisingly strong U.S. inflation data, which dashed speculation about rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

The US consumer price index (CPI) for January surprised markets to the upside on Tuesday, both in the headline (+0.3% v +0.2%) and core (+0.4% v +0.3%) readings, delaying market bets of the start of rate cuts and strengthening the US dollar.

As a result, global stock indices extended their losses, moving in the opposite direction to the gains experienced thanks to aggressive bets for early rate cuts and the spotlight is once again on a Fed that wants to make sure inflation is tamed before making a move.

"For yet another month, inflation has beaten estimates, while core inflation remains almost double the 2% target, against a backdrop of solid economic growth and labor market," wrote Renta 4 analysts.

"The Fed rate cuts expected by the market for 2024 have moderated to 4 (vs 5 before the data and 7 at the beginning of the year) and the start of the cuts has been delayed in time (probability by meetings: 11% March, 30% May, 61% June)."

On the macroeconomic front, the focus will be on US retail sales and producer price index data, to be released Thursday and Friday respectively.

At 0816 GMT on Wednesday, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 was up 21.30 points, or 0.21%, to 9,946.70 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.11%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 1.13%, BBVA gained 0.24%, Caixabank advanced 0.10%, Sabadell gained 0.04%, Bankinter gained 0.93%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.05%.

The insurer Mapfre lost 3.34% after announcing a 20% increase in its net profit in 2023.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.31%, Inditex advanced 0.03%, Iberdrola gained 0.19%, Cellnex gained 0.95%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.18%.

(Information by José Muñoz; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)