NEW YORK, New York - Wall Street got the wobbles on Monday after a sell-off in Europe and the UK. Asian markets however got the week off to a good start, particularly in Hong Kong where the Hang Seng jumped more than 700 points.

"The risk for these markets is that, after a bumper couple of months, investors may start to wonder whether they're looking a little frothy," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA Europe told Reuters Thomson Monday.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm for industrials, the technology sector made decent gains Monday. The Nasdaq Composite closed 92.93 points or 0.69 percent higher at 13,635.99.

The Standard and Poor's 500 added 13.89 points or 0.36 percent to 3,855.36.

The Dow Jones industrials dropped 36.98 points or 0.12 percent to 30,960.00.

The pause in buying of stocks provided respite for the embattled U.S. dollar which made across-the-board gains on Monday.

The euro dipped to 1.2141 by the New York close on Monday. The British pound retreated to 1.3669. The Japanese yen edged lower to 103.76. The Swiss franc eased to 0.8881.

The Canadian dollar declined to 1.2746. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.7709. The New Zealand dollar weakened to 0.7195.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell by 0.84 percent. The German Dax slid 1.66 percent, while the Paris-based CAC 40 shed 1.57 percent.

On Asian markets, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 finished the day Monday with a 190.84 points or 0.67 percent gain at 28,822.29.

The Australian All Ordinaries gained 32.50 points or 0.46 percent to 7,111.40, an eleven-month high.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rallied 711.16 points or 2.41 percent to 30,159.01.

The Shanghai Composite in China gained 17.49 points or 0.48 percent to 3,624.24.