The IBEX 35 opened Friday's session with losses, pointing to a weekly decline of more than 3%, as global markets reacted cautiously to the much-anticipated U.S. employment data, which failed to clarify the short-term trajectory for interest rates.

Meanwhile, investors continued to pull back from risk assets, despite the initial positive reaction to Nvidia's earnings report on Wednesday.

U.S. stock markets--mirroring their Asian counterparts overnight--hit the brakes on Thursday in a climate of anxiety over inflated tech stock prices, despite Nvidia's stellar forecasts. These concerns triggered the sharpest one-day swing in the Nasdaq since April 9, when tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump rattled markets.

September employment figures beat expectations, but a rise in the unemployment rate and downward revisions to previous months painted a complex picture for the Federal Reserve ahead of its December meeting, as the central bank also faces persistent inflation.

"For equities, this eases fears of a hard landing: consumer and services-linked sectors are supported by this resilience in employment," said Sergio Ávila of brokerage IG. "The flip side is that the Fed will be in less of a hurry to cut rates aggressively."

Futures market traders now see almost a 39% chance that the Fed will cut rates in December.

"Yesterday's correction on Wall Street, mainly due to the jobs data, was excessive, so the U.S. afternoon should see a bit of a rebound. But the European morning will be poor as it needs to mirror New York, and didn't have time to react yesterday," analysts at Bankinter said on their Telegram channel.

"Friday will go from bad to less bad, with a likely rebound on Wall Street. But if there isn't a rebound, that's almost better, because, as we've said, we consider a natural adjustment in November/December to be healthy," they added.

On the macroeconomic front, investors are awaiting preliminary November composite PMI data from Europe and the U.S.

At 0817 GMT on Friday, Spain's blue-chip IBEX 35 was down 229.00 points, or 1.43%, at 15,759.90. For the week, the Madrid index is down 3.59%, its biggest drop since the first week of April.

The pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 index was down 0.98%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 1.92%, BBVA fell 2.00%, Caixabank dropped 2.17%, Sabadell was down 1.73%, Bankinter slipped 1.52%, and Unicaja Banco fell 2.05%.

Among major non-financial stocks, Telefónica slipped 0.22%, Inditex lost 1.83%, Iberdrola edged up 0.11%, Cellnex fell 0.44%, and oil company Repsol dropped 4.35%.

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