European stocks fall on profit-taking

European stocks fell on Wednesday, giving up the 9-month peak due to corrections and profit-taking, but today's losses are limited so far, especially as the US stocks indices on Wall Street jumped to new record highs.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.3% as of 11:30 GMT, after it closed higher by 0.5% yesterday, and hit the highest since February of 392.39 points.

The pan European index opened lower today, on profit-taking from a 9-month high, with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing red.

The automotive sector saw the largest losses in Europe today, dropping more than 1.5%, followed by the banking sector, with a drop by 1.4%.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.3%, after the index closed higher by 1.6% yesterday, in the second straight daily gain, and Dow Jones jumped more than 450 points and breached the 30,000-point barrier for the first time in history.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 0.3%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.1%, Germany's DAX fell 0.4%, and the UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%.