After the strong start of the month, the Dax left the 15,800 point mark a little further behind in early trading on Tuesday.
It recently gained 0.28 percent to 15,850.46 points and is thus approaching its record high of 16,030 points from August.
The DAX is still in an intact upward trend, stated analyst Jochen Stanzl from CMC Markets.
At the same time, however, investors are relatively skeptical of the rising market.
It is possible that the majority of investors are not yet back in the market, so that the supposed year-end rally has room for improvement.
The M-Dax of the medium-sized stock market fell on Tuesday morning by 0.09 percent to 35,086.72 points.
The percentage of the leading Eurozone index Euro Stoxx 50 was almost unchanged.
Investors are now focusing on the beginning meeting of the US Federal Reserve, the results of which will be announced on Wednesday.
In addition, further quarterly reports are in focus on Tuesday.
Investors were particularly impressed by the Hellofresh cooking box group, whose shares at the top of the Dax rose by 13 percent.