TOKYO- Asian markets mostly fell on Thursday as the rally from news of Apple's strong earnings that spurred record highs for the Dow Jones industrial average faded.
Myriad worries over China's rising debt, weaker commodity prices and possible rising tensions between Beijing and Washington overshadowed regional markets.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged down 0.4% to 20,004.00 in morning trading.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% to 5,730.20.
South Korea's Kospi sank 1.6% to 2,389.04.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.1% at 27,570.83, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, falling less than 0.1% to 3,283.32.
WALL STREET: The Dow average rose 0.2% to a record 22,016.24.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a much broader market measure used by most professional investors, added less than 0.1% to 2,477.57.
The Nasdaq composite was flat at 6,362.65. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks shed 1.1% to 1,412.90.
THE QUOTE: "A moderation in the momentum of gains for US indices could provide little to inspire Asian markets today," Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore, said in a commentary: "Asian markets had, as a whole, shown strong momentum since the start of the week built on data surprises. Having had an early rally following Apple Inc.'s surge yesterday, the regional IT sector may find limited room for gains despite the US lead."
ENERGY: Benchmark US crude fell 9 cents to $49.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
It added 43 cents to $49.59 overnight. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 15 cents to $52.21 a barrel in London.
CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 110.66 yen from 110.69 yen late Wednesday in Asia. The euro fell to $1.1845 from $1.1856.