After a few days of calm and records, turbulence returns to the stock markets. The announcement by the US President, Donald Trump, that the ceasefire with Iran is over has caused an avalanche of sales and declines in all European stock exchanges.

The Catalan company for auxiliary tourism and travel services ByteTravel has debuted on the SME stock exchange, BME Growth, after almost two years listed on BME Scaleup. It is the second company to make the leap from one market to another. The stock market debut began with an increase, reaching 4.84 euros, with an increment of 7.56% and a capitalization of almost 135 million. The company's CEO, Axel Serena, rang the traditional bell at the Barcelona Stock Exchange, accompanied by the managing director of BME Growth and BME Scaleup, Jesús González Nieto, and the president of the Barcelona Stock Exchange, Fausto Agelet.

The president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Carlos San Basilio, has argued that the Spanish stock market should grow in listed companies and diversification. "We should have an Ibex-50, with companies with high capitalization and liquidity, and that could be a market as diversified as possible," he stated during his intervention at the summer course of the UIMP and APIE held this week in Santander.

Elon Musk seeks to break down the doors of Wall Street. In an update to the IPO prospectus of his technology giant, SpaceX, the world's richest man has specified that it will issue 555 million shares at a unit price of $135. In this way, Musk's space and artificial intelligence insignia seeks to add about $75 billion to its capital, an amount that would consolidate it as the largest initial public offering (IPO, the technical name for a company's stock market debut) in history, surpassing that of the oil company Saudi Aramco in 2019, which raised just over $29 billion.

The war has begun and Elon Musk has fired first. The mega IPO of SpaceX, the all-encompassing technology company of the world's richest man, has opened the doors of Wall Street to generative AI. Although it is known for its rockets and defense contracts, SpaceX has housed xAI since February of this year, the company within the South African's conglomerate that manages its consumer artificial intelligence, the chatbot integrated into the X social network, Grok. Musk's public offering sets the path for the rest of the sector: a historically high capitalization target —$1.75 trillion— and billions raised to add to the immense computing investments that will be needed to cover growing demand. Following behind are Anthropic, the creator of Claude, which has the fourth quarter marked in red, and OpenAI, of ChatGPT, which left behind the legal problems with Musk and already has a clear path to join the New York stock exchange.

The distrust of investors with Grifols once again punishes the company's stock during earnings season. After the Catalan pharmaceutical company published its quarterly accounts at the close of Thursday's market, with a 22% increase in profit, up to 73 million euros, it opened Friday's stock session in a clear downward trend. Around twenty minutes to eleven in the morning, the Catalan multinational's shares are the worst in the selective index, with a decrease of more than 4%. Around midday, however, the analysis firm Moody's improved its assessment of the company's debt, painting a positive immediate future. With this new reading, the stock has rebounded slightly. After one in the afternoon, it lowered the value by about 2%, to 8.98 euros.

The Spanish defense and technology company Indra has begun trading on the stock market this Wednesday with an increase, hours after the departure from the shareholding of Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E) was announced, the company of brothers Ángel and Javier Escribano, who until Tuesday controlled 14.5% of the capital.

Banking has suffered a black day on the stock market. Financial institutions have painted European main indices red, dragged down by forecasts of economic contraction due to the war in Iran. All countries have seen their banks lose momentum since the opening, but the Spanish state is among the main victims. The Ibex-35, much more heavily weighted with banking stocks than the rest of the relevant EU indices, has fallen by nearly 2.4% this Monday, and is once again moving away from the 18,000-point threshold that marked its rally since the start of 2026. Far from these figures, the German Dax 40 has survived the declines in the stock prices of Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, and has stopped its freefall at -1.2%; while the French Cac 40 has dropped by nearly 1.7%.

After Iran announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices have plummeted in the markets. Specifically, on Friday afternoon, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil – the benchmark in Europe – fell by more than 10% and stood at around $89. Futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude—the benchmark in the United States—stood at around $83, almost 12% less than on Thursday. At some points during the conflict, the price of a barrel of Brent had touched $120. Despite Friday's drop, the price of oil remains above the $72 it stood at just before the attack by the United States and Israel on Iran.

Monday of strong tension in international financial markets. The failure of peace negotiations between Iran and the United States during this weekend has transferred geopolitical tension directly to the trading floors, which have once again turned red. Donald Trump's order to block the Strait of Hormuz –and his direct threat to sink any Iranian ship that ignores the siege– has set off all alarms about global supply.

In a year like 2025, with record stock market gains, the main executives of the Ibex companies, the main benchmark of the Spanish equity market, overwhelmingly earned very significant incomes, further widening the gap with the average earnings of their staff. The link between remuneration and stock performance contributed to boosting the incomes of many senior executives. A clear example was Manuel Manrique, president of Sacyr, who topped the rankings by earning 32.6 million euros, 384.59% more than the previous year, thanks to a bonus for the company's stock market rise since the pandemic. As a consequence of this plan, this executive, one of the founders of Sacyr, multiplied his remuneration of around 6.7 million from 2022, 2023, and 2024. The fact is that Manrique's remuneration was 628 times the average earned by the company's staff, which is around 52,000 euros, according to the directors' remuneration report published by this company.

The tension around the war with Iran has once again shaken energy markets and driven the price of oil above 110 dollars a barrel. After Donald Trump's speech, in which he avoided specifying when the Strait of Hormuz could be reopened, investors reacted nervously and accelerated crude oil purchases. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a benchmark in the United States, has climbed above this threshold —the highest level since March 9— and is heading for its most intense daily increase since 2020, while Brent, a benchmark in Europe, also maintains an upward trend in a context marked by geopolitical uncertainty and the risk of further supply disruptions.

The crisis in energy markets stemming from the war in the Middle East will worsen "significantly" heading into April compared to March, according to the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol. The Turkish director, who visited the podcast of Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), explained that while during the last month shipments from the Middle East were still arriving at ports, by April "there will be nothing".

Grifols is deepening its commitment to full integration and self-sufficiency in plasma production to avoid importing it to countries where blood donations are paid for. One instrument to reinforce this commitment will be the initial public offering with a portion of the capital of the Biopharma division in the United StatesThe company has decided to take this step, announced Tuesday night to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), to strengthen its model in the US. This approach encompasses the entire value chain, from plasma collection to manufacturing, logistics, analysis, and distribution of blood products, comparable to the vertical integration of the Inditex-Zara model. According to market sources, the total value of the business to be listed is between €23.7 billion and €27.7 billion, between 13 and 15 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), and could substantially reduce Grifols' debt, which currently stands at €0. The company intends to carry out the operation through an initial public offering (IPO) for a minority stake, which, according to Bloomberg, could raise around €6 billion if 20% of the shares are offered. The company's shares, which had risen more than 8% in early trading, finished 1.36% higher on the Spanish market, reaching €8.96.

The Spanish government took the first step on Tuesday to try to revive the Spanish stock market, which has suffered from a drought of new listings for many years. In this regard, the executive branch approved a draft bill transposing several European directives with a clear objective: to make it easier for companies, especially SMEs, to go public. The reform directly addresses one of founders' main fears: the loss of political control of the company to external investors. To this end, the government has introduced two key measures. Until now, to go public, a company had to offer at least 25% of its capital, known as free floatWith the new regulations, that threshold drops to 10%. This allows the original owners to raise funds without having to sell almost a quarter of the company at once. Furthermore, the law opens the door to dual-voting shares. This mechanism allows certain shares, usually those retained by the founders, to have greater weight in decision-making than those sold to new investors. "What we are doing is reducing the risk of diluting the founders' stake," explained the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, at the press conference following the cabinet meeting. Less bureaucracy for SMEs

The Socialist government also wants to reduce the costs of listing on the stock exchange. First, the threshold for issuing a share issuance that requires a complex prospectus is being raised from €8 million to €12 million. Another measure is the reduction and simplification of transparency requirements for smaller companies, with the aim of facilitating their participation in the stock market. Finally, alternative investment funds will also be allowed to grant loans to these companies, strengthening their position as an alternative to traditional banks and increasing transparency in the fees charged to intermediaries.

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We read in the ARA This headline: "Black Thursday on World Stock Exchanges." It refers, of course, to the fact that the notorious US president is shaking up the stock market with his all-you-can-eat attitude toward the world. The stock exchanges are the stock market. We all understand that, just as when we say "the papers" we understand that we mean newspapers.

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Indra's board of directors, in an extraordinary meeting, decided to postpone the planned merger with Escribano Mechanical & Engineering SL (EM&M). The decision was proposed by the chairman, Ángel Escribano, who also co-owns EM&M with his brother Javier. With this move, Escribano circumvents the demand from the State, Indra's largest shareholder through SEPI, which had called for his resignation should the integration project proceed. SEPI, the state-owned holding company that controls 28% of Indra's capital, considered this the only way to avoid a conflict of interest, even though measures had been taken to prevent the businessman from participating in the merger aimed at creating a major Spanish defense group. SEPI argued that a conflict of interest would arise if the integration went ahead and Indra acquired a company co-owned by its own chairman. The Escribano family, for their part, have opted to propose to the board of directors that the merger be halted and that Ángel Escribano remain as chairman of Indra. EM&M holds 14.3% of Indra's capital, Ángel Escribano is its chairman, and his brother is also a board member. In this context, the company's shares registered a significant drop, exceeding 16%. The session ended with a loss of more than 12%, down to €50, and a reduction in the company's value of approximately €1.3 billion. The session had already begun in the red after SEPI acknowledged on Wednesday night that a conflict of interest existed regarding the potential acquisition of EM&M. In a communication to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the state-owned company stated that it had conveyed to Indra its "concern about the influence that the conflict of interest has on the analysis of this operation, despite the measures taken to mitigate it." He insisted that any conflict of interest between Indra and EM&E should be resolved before the transaction took place. For this reason, he requested that "this conflict of interest be resolved so that we can continue with the analysis of the transaction and make a decision that is as advantageous as possible for Indra."

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The US Treasury Department announced Thursday that it will temporarily authorize the purchase of Russian oil in transit. The measure aims to curb the surge in crude oil prices, which jumped more than 9% on Thursday after several days of increases and, despite moderating the pace of the climb, continued to rise on Friday. On Friday, the price of Brent crude—the European benchmark—surfaced at over $100 a barrel. Conversely, the price of natural gas moved in the opposite direction, falling by approximately 0.60% to €50.54 per megawatt-hour (MWh) on the Dutch TTF market, which sets prices across the continent. These declines were relatively small, and gas prices rose for much of the day. With the lifting of restrictions on Russian crude, thousands of barrels will enter the market, which should contribute to a decrease—or at least a moderation of the escalating price—of oil. When it announced the embargo, President Donald Trump's administration asserted that the ban on Russian oil purchases was key to pressuring Moscow in the war in Ukraine. However, it now indicates that this temporary exemption from the restriction, which will last until April 11, will not represent a significant benefit for Russia.

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Oil and natural gas prices continue to rise as the conflict in the Middle East escalates, negatively impacting stock markets. On Thursday, Brent crude oil neared $100 a barrel again, representing an increase of more than 8% compared to the previous day. The price surge accelerated after Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mukhta Khamenei, warned that he would maintain the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Natural gas also rose on Thursday, reaching €50.27 per megawatt-hour (MWh) on the Dutch TTF market, around 0.56% higher than Wednesday's levels. This increase in energy costs has impacted the markets, which, for yet another day since the start of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, experienced losses. The Ibex 35 closed the session with a loss of 1.22% and will start tomorrow at 17,139.90 points. Among the stocks in Spain's main index, banks were the hardest hit: Unicaja fell 4.56%; Sabadell, 4.16%; and BBVA, 3.53%. Conversely, energy companies experienced a rebound, led by Repsol, which posted a gain of 2.63%. The other European stock exchanges followed the same trend: London and Paris fell 0.47% and 0.71%, respectively. Milan also closed lower, down 0.71%, and the best-performing European exchange was Frankfurt, with a drop of 0.29%.

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If investors are patient and don't let nervousness get the better of them when prices fall or rise, stocks are the financial asset that offers the highest returns. Since 1900, shares in companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange have yielded an average of 2% more than bonds and long-term government debt, according to the study. Global investment returns yearbook 2026 (Global Investment Performance Yearbook 2026) published by the Swiss bank UBS in collaboration with Professor Paul Marsh and Dr. Mike Staunton (London Business School) and Professor Elroy Dimson (University of Cambridge) with data from 35 countries.

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