NEW YORK, New York - Weak economic news out of China undermined stocks on Wall Street on Monday. The major indices had a wild ride with rallies being confronted by hoards of sellers. Major early gains evaporated as the day wore on.

"China data was kind of the morning overhang on the market, but it's trying to find its footing led by energy. You're seeing people rotate into the winners of the year so far, which are energy and utilities," Jay Hatfield, chief executive officer at Infrastructure Capital Management in New York told Reuters Monday.

"We think that a lot of sectors in the market are undervalued."

The Dow Jones was the only major to finish in front, albeit with a miserly 26.76 points or 0.08 percent gain to 22,223.42.

The Nasdaq Composite was the hardest hit index, tumbling 142.21 points or 1.20 percent to 11,662.71.

The Standard and Poor's 500 slipped 15.88 points or 0.79 percent to 4,008.01.

On overseas equity markets, the Dax in Germany fell 0.45 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 dipped 0.23 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 advanced 0.63 percent.

On foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar weakened marginally, except against the Japanese yen.

The euro edged up to 1.0430 around the New York close Monday. The British pound gained to 1.2314. The Swis sfranc was unchanged at 1.00276.

The Canadian dollar firmed to 1.2850. The Australian dollar was nearly a cent higher at 0.6971. The New Zealand dollar rose to 0.6309.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 119.40 points or 0.45 percent to 26,547.20.

China's Shanghai Composite lost 10.54 points or 0.34 percent to 3,073.75.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 edged up 10.52 points or 0.09 percent to 11,157.66.

The Australian All Ordinaries rose 18.50 points or 0.25 percent to 7,326.20.

In South Korea, the Kospi Composite fell 7.66 points or 0.29 percent to 2,596.58.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 51.44 points or 0.26 percent to 19,950.21.