The Ibex closes the week at its best moment since November 2021

The European stock markets have closed another positive week this Friday and continue their good trend of 2023. The Euro Stoxx 50, which brings together the main companies in the euro zone, has advanced 1.33% this week. Although most of the community parks have closed the session this Friday flat or with slight advances, all have appreciated more than 8% since the beginning of the year. Milan leads the increases with an advance of 11.51%. The Ibex, the main Spanish indicator, closed the week at 9,062 points (+0.3%), a level it had not reached since November 2021. In the United States, Wall Street is advancing with doubts after positive inflation data, but worse than expected by investors.

After the worst year on the stock market since the financial crisis of 2008, the markets have started 2023 renewed. The large markets are beginning to glimpse a moderation in inflation and, with it, central banks are stepping on the brakes —or at least releasing the accelerator— with interest rate rises. In addition, the good growth data —Germany and the euro area could avoid recession— refute the most pessimistic versions of the economy of the Old Continent. “It could be said that the market has already more than discounted a soft landing for the economy,” the Renta4 bank analysts point out in their report this Friday.

After confirming that the gross domestic product (GDP) advanced 5.5% in 2022, the Ibex has closed the week appreciating 1.59%. The Spanish team has managed to hold on to the 9,000 points it achieved this Thursday. Since the beginning of the year, it has appreciated by more than 10.1%, recovering its losses from last year. The best performing stock is Banco Sabadell, which continues its positive hangover after the good results published this Thursday. After having advanced almost 11% on Thursday, on Friday it leads the rises in the Spanish selective (+5%). On the other side of the coin is Solaria, which has fallen by 3.54%.

Debt

In the debt market, the Spanish 10-year bond is paid at a yield of 3.27%. So far this year it has depreciated slightly (-0.39%). At the moment, and with the end of the purchase of debt by the European Central Bank just around the corner, investors trust the solvency of Spain: the Spanish risk premium stands at 96 points, 12 less than beginning of the year.

The euro, although it has depreciated slightly against the dollar this Friday, continues to face the greenback in 2023: at the close of the European Stock Exchanges, the community currency is paid at $1.08. In the last three months, the euro has appreciated against the US currency by close to 10%. Last year it came to lose parity on several occasions, weighed down by the energy crisis, since gas contracts are paid in dollars.

In the chapter on raw materials —the great protagonists of last year— crude oil has barely changed its price so far this year. Brent (the benchmark in Europe) depreciates 0.8% at the close of the European markets, and a barrel is paid at $86.77. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a reference in the US, follows suit and the barrel falls more than 1%, to 80 dollars. The two indices have appreciated, since the beginning of the year, barely two dollars.