European stocks fell on Wednesday, to pull back from 2-week highs on profit-taking and risk-aversion, amid fears over the US-EU trade tensions, especially as the US administration is considering imposing tariffs on European imports worth $3.1 billion.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 1.6% as of 11:22 GMT, after closing higher by 1.3% yesterday, and hit a 2-week high on strong European economic data.
The pan European index opened lower today, to pull back from 2-week highs on profit-taking, with most European markets and sectors seeing red today.
The travel and leisure sector saw the largest losses in Europe today, with a drop by 3%, on concerns over a surge of coronavirus cases in the US.
The Trump administration is considering imposing new tariffs on imports worth $3.1 billion from France, Germany, Spain and the UK, which could escalate trade tensions between the EU and the US.
The European Union had asked earlier the World Trade Organization to impose tariffs on US imports worth $11.2 billion as retaliation for illegal subsidies to Boeing.
The White House health adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned on Tuesday that parts of the US are seeing an alarming increase coronavirus cases.
S&P 500 futures fell 1.0%, after the index closed higher by 0.4% yesterday at Wall Street, on expectations for more stimulus measures in the US.
Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 1.6%, France's CAC 40 dipped 1.5%, Germany's DAX fell 1.8%, and the UK's FTSE 100 fell 2.1%.