The IBEX 35 opened Friday virtually unchanged, buoyed by growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in December--an outlook that helps ease concerns over excessive valuations. With this backdrop, the Spanish blue-chip index is on track to close its best week since early August and to mark five consecutive months of gains.

U.S. markets, which remained closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, will see a shortened session on Friday, resulting in lighter-than-usual activity across major asset classes. Most European stock markets started the day flat.

The lack of economic data due to the U.S. government shutdown has prompted the Federal Reserve to adopt a cautious stance on further monetary easing. However, key figures such as Fed Governor Christopher Waller and New York Fed President John Williams have expressed support for a rate cut next month.

According to CME FedWatch, Fed funds futures now indicate an 85% probability of a rate cut next month--a sharp increase from just 30% a week earlier.

"Attention temporarily shifts to consumer spending, if AI allows, as the holiday season kicks off today with Black Friday. It will be a good barometer of American consumer confidence," analysts at Bankinter commented on their Telegram channel.

"It will therefore be a semi-holiday session, in which we expect moderate, probably upward, movements in the markets," they added.

On the macroeconomic front, markets are eyeing inflation data (1300 GMT) and unemployment figures (0855 GMT) from Germany. In Spain, EU-harmonized annual inflation eased to 3.1% in November from 3.2% in October, while in France it remained at 0.8%.

At 0805 GMT on Friday, the Spanish IBEX 35 index was up 8.80 points, or 0.05%, at 16,370.60.

For the week as a whole, Madrid's benchmark index is up 3.48%--its best performance since the week ending August 8. In November, the index is set for a 2.12% gain, extending its winning streak to a fifth consecutive month.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.22%, BBVA gained 0.49%, Caixabank advanced 0.29%, Sabadell slipped 0.06%, Bankinter was up 0.41%, and Unicaja Banco climbed 0.24%.

Among the major non-financial stocks, Telefónica rose 0.05%, Inditex slipped 0.06%, Iberdrola fell 0.08%, Cellnex dropped 0.12%, and oil company Repsol gained 0.41%.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of leading European stocks edged up 0.02%.

(Reporting by Benjamín Mejías Valencia; editing by Tomás Cobos)