European stocks retreat from record highs on profit taking

European stocks fell on Tuesday, and pulled back further from all-time highs as profit-taking continued, in addition to investors' risk aversion, after the US stocks fell.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 1.2% as of 11:25 GMT, after closing lower by 0.1% yesterday on profit-taking from its all-time high of 443.6 points.

The travel and entertainment sector saw the largest losses in Europe today, falling 2.4%, due to a broad sell-off wave in the sector.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.5% ahead of Wall Street opening after the index closed lower by more than 0.5% yesterday, after hitting its record high of 4,191.31 points.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 1.1% after it hit the highest level since January 2008 at 4,040.9 points yesterday, France's CAC 40 fell 1.5% after it hit the highest level since November 2000 at 6,319.1 points.

Germany's DAX index fell 0.9% hit a new record high of 15,501.8 points, while the UK's FTSE 100 fell 1.1%.