The tech-rich Nasdaq tumbled again while the Dow forged higher on Tuesday as investors continued to steer funds away from artificial intelligence equities toward other sectors.

The ongoing so-called "rotation" from tech giants to smaller and medium-sized company comes as some of the biggest tech companies are set to report quarterly results in the coming days.

But Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, noted that this buying trend may be almost over now that Microsoft, Nvidia and others have fallen significantly from their peaks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5 percent to 40,743.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.5 percent to 5,436, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.3 percent to 17,147.

Microsoft reported after the market closed on Tuesday, while Apple, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta will report over the next two days.

"This rotation likely stops when we get the majority of these mega caps to report," Hogan said.

Among individual companies, Procter & Gamble dropped 4.9 percent as it reported a seven percent fall in quarterly profits on flat sales.

Crowdstrike also plunged nearly 10 percent following reports Delta hired attorney David Boies to seek damages following an IT outage that threw the airline's operations into turmoil for several days.

Besides the deluge of corporate earnings, this week's calendar includes Wednesday's Fed decision, as well as monthly US employment data on Friday. (AFP)