Ibex 35 declines below 8,900 after falling 3% on Wednesday

A bad start to the month for the Ibex. The Spanish index fell below 9,000, to 8,873.40 points as it posted its third consecutive loss of the week, leading to a loss of 3% already in November, almost cancelling out the gain of 4.1% from the previous month.

Spanish banks appeared to be the main culprits. Banco Popular fell 3.4%, with BBVA also falling slightly less, 3.1%. Sabadell dropped by 2.7% in a miserable day for the financial institutions. In addition, Gas Natural published its third quarter financial results before the open on Wednesday, with its stock suffering a 2.9% decline. After the close, it will be the turn of US multinational social media network Facebook.

Europe in general suffered another disappointing session on Wednesday, with the banking sector once again taking the responsibility for most of the damage. The Euro Stoxx Banks SX7E fell 2.7% during trading and was one of the main guilty parties in European losses. Further losses were posted on the Dax 30 in Germany, the Cac 40 in France and the FTSE 100 in Britain.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Federal Reserve is likely to hold off its interest rate rise to December, with investors expecting to leave its policy unchanged this evening in an announcement expected at 19:00 CET.

Despite the fact that the Fed may not need astonishing employment data to increase the interest rate, they will no doubt be taking into account the recent news concerning the upcoming US presidential election, which is shaking the markets. The Volatility Index (VIX), referred to as the "fear index" because it shows the market's volatility expectations, has risen more than 40% over the past six days.

With regard to oil markets, the price of crude fell 3% after weekly inventories were higher than previously expected, reaching 14.4m barrels. The US benchmark West Texas fell 3.04% to 45.25 per barrel, while the European benchmark of Brent fell 3% to $46.70.