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Hong Kong - Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday following a muted lead from Wall Street, while Tokyo slipped on profit-taking as the yen clawed back some of the previous day's losses against the dollar.
Brent crude oil held up after rebounding in New York on Monday from a slump earlier in the day in Asian trade fuelled by Iran's nuclear deal.
Tokyo eased 0.74%, Sydney rose 0.26% and Hong Kong was 0.20% higher, while Shanghai was up 0.19% and Seoul dipped 0.23%.
Traders held back in early exchanges after the previous day's rally, which saw Japan's Nikkei close at a six-month high thanks to the yen's fall against the dollar.
The greenback climbed as high as ¥101.92 on Monday in Asia - its highest since May - before retreating in New York to end at ¥101.51.
"The dollar's levels are key to predicting the Nikkei, but even the smallest pause in the yen-weakening trend we've seen will invite profit-taking after the Nikkei's recent run-up," Kenichi Hirano, market analyst at Tachibana Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
In Asia on Tuesday the dollar fetched ¥101.55. In other currency trading the euro bought $1.3537 compared with $1.3524, while it was also at ¥137.47 from ¥137.28.
US shares ended little changed after the Dow and S&P 500 breached key milestones last week.
The Dow - which broke 16 000 for the first time on Thursday - ended up 0.05% at another record, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.13% but remained above the 1 800 level it passed on Friday.
The Nasdaq inched up 0.07% to 3 994.57 but was unable to hold its intraday levels above 4 000, which it hit for the first time since the 2000 dot-com bust.
On oil markets Brent North Sea crude for January was 10 cents down at $110.90. However, it managed to recover late on Monday after a sell-off in Asia earlier in the day as investors responded to Iran's nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran on Sunday agreed to curb its nuclear programme for the next six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief.
The move raised fears of a supply glut but those were later soothed as it emerged most sanctions remain in place, including the critical provisions that restrain the country's oil investment.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for January delivery, was up 21 cents at $94.30 on Tuesday in Asia.
Gold fetched $1 252.80 per ounce at 04:05 compared with $1 231.50 on Monday.
