European Markets Rally Amid Trade Negotiation Developments
The Ibex 35 opened Thursday's session with a 7% rise, bringing the Madrid selective index to 12,810.8 points around 9:00 AM. This surge followed Donald Trump's announcement of a 10% reduction in tariffs for 90 days on all countries that opted to negotiate the trade dispute and did not retaliate against Washington after the tariffs adopted on April 2, also referred to as Liberation Day.
In response to this decision, Wall Street saw significant gains, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing yesterday's session up 787 points, reaching 40,608.45 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed by 121.6 points to 17,124.97 points, and the S&P 500 rose by 95.2 points, closing at 5,456.90 points.
Simultaneously, President Trump announced that tariffs on China would ultimately rise to 12.5%, effective immediately. In retaliation, the new tariffs of 8.4% announced by China on imports of US goods came into effect on Thursday. This back-and-forth has significantly influenced global markets, with the Madrid Stock Exchange benefiting from a rebound in the Nikkei 225 index, which jumped 9.15% this Thursday. The Hang Seng index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange also saw a nearly 3% increase.
In the Spanish corporate sector, BBVA announced the distribution of a complementary dividend of 0.41 euros gross per share, increasing the total amount to be distributed based on the 2024 results to 2.362 billion euros.
In the early stages of the session, the largest gains within the Ibex 35 were recorded by ArcelorMittal (+1.92%), CaixaBank (+1.837%), and Acerinox (+1.758%), while the biggest losses were seen by Grifols (-0.788%), Indra (-0.307%), and IAG (-0.294%).
Major European stock exchanges also opened positively: Milan saw an increase of 0.95%, Frankfurt rose by 0.83%, London was up by 0.585%, and Paris increased by 1.81%.
At the start of the stock market, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, a benchmark for the Old Continent, stood at $64.9, a decrease of 0.89%, while Texas crude fell by 0.74% to $61.89. In the forex market, the euro was quoted against the dollar at 1.0970, while in the debt market, the yield on the 10-year bond climbed to 3.379%.
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