Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Monday, with industrial companies lifting the Dow and a retreat by some of the hottest tech names weighing on the Nasdaq.

Analysts described the market as in a wait-and-see mode ahead of major news events this week, including a US presidential debate and key US inflation data.

The Dow Jones finished up 0.7 percent at 39,411.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent to 5,447, while the Nasdaq tumbled 1.1 percent to 17,496.

"There's some natural rotation just given how massive the outperformance between the big tech stocks and the artificial intelligence momentum plays has been relative to the broader market," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

"There's just a kind of a natural consolidation and rotation trade taking place there."

Ahead of the Thursday night debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump and Friday's report on personal consumption pricing, the calendar includes earnings from FedEx and consumer confidence data.

AI star Nvidia, which has risen spectacularly over the last year to attain a market capitalisation above US$3 trillion, fell 6.7 percent in the stock's third straight down day.

Other big AI-linked equities including Qualcomm, Broadcom and Arm Holdings also fell.

Target rose 2.4 percent after announcing a partnership with global commerce platform Shopify intended to boost Target Plus, the big box store's digital marketplace. Shopify fell 1.1 percent. (AFP)