European stocks lost altitude Monday, with Lufthansa, Fresenius and William Hill among the biggest losers after they gave discouraging updates on their businesses.

U.S. stocks retreated Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back further from the psychologically significant 20,000 milestone, although the Nasdaq bucked the weak trend to finish at an all-time closing high for a second session in a row. Equities have been strong performers recently, highlighted by a nearly 10% climb over the past three months. Most of the gains in stocks have been the result of the presidential election in the U.S. Investors have bet that the policies president-elect Donald Trump is expected to support will accelerate economic growth - a bullish scenario for stocks.

China's consumer inflation slowed in December, losing speed for the first time in four months, but producer inflation quickened at a pace much faster than economists expected, official data showed Tuesday. China's consumer price index increased 2.1% in December from a year earlier, rising at slower pace than a 2.3% year-over-year gain in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said, adding that a higher base for comparison from the year-earlier period was the main factor weighing on the headline figure.