Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Shares across Asia were mixed on Tuesday despite stocks in the US closing at new record highs, helped by a rise in Apple shares.
The Nikkei index was up 0.66% in early trade at 20,021.76 points, reports BBC.
Analysts put the positive investor sentiment in the US down to a belief the Federal Reserve will "hold off moving rates at the back end of 2015".
US growth isn't what you would call rapid or even solid," said Evan Lucas of IG Markets in Melbourne.
It is soft at best. The thought therefore is that 'data dependant' Fed can wait," he said.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index opened in positive territory, but soon turned negative, trading 0.34% lower at 5,639.60.
Minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) gave some insight into the central bank's decision to cut its benchmark lending rate to an all-time low of 2% earlier this month.
The RBA minutes noted that although recent economic data had been "generally positive" there were also signs that "future capital spending in both the mining and non-mining sectors would be weaker than expected".
Overall, compared with the previous set of forecasts, growth was now expected to take longer to strengthen and the unemployment rate was likely to remain elevated for longer," the minutes said.
Together with subdued growth of domestic costs, including wages, the central bank said "inflation was expected to be slightly lower than in earlier forecasts" and that "on the face of it, this meant that it would be appropriate to consider an easing of monetary policy".
Elsewhere in Asia
South Korea's benchmark Kospi index was up 0.11% at 2,116.08.
An appeals court in the US upheld a jury's finding that South Korea's Samsung illegally copied some patented features in Apple's iPhone, but it said Apple was not entitled to damages for its claims that Samsung had copied the iPhone's overall appearance.
The ruling could reduce the $930m in damages the South Korean company has been ordered to pay.
In Greater China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.12% at 27,558.00 points in early trade and analysts said they expected it to remain flat for most of the day.
The Shanghai Composite was up 0.72% at 4,314.25 points. The index closed down on Monday as investors prepared for the release of a string of new initial share offerings.