Chinese industry gains, Dow hits record high

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were broadly lower on Tuesday, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit new highs on Wall Street.

The blue-chip index closed with an increase of 65.44 points or 0.16 percent at 41,240.52.

Traders in Asia will also be paying attention to China’s year-to-date industrial earnings in July.

Oil prices continued to rise late Monday after Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes over the weekend. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 3.5 percent to $77.42 a barrel and Brent crude rose 3.05 percent to $81.43 a barrel, the highest price in about two weeks.

Oil prices gave up some of their gains on Tuesday, with WTI futures trading at $77.16 and Brent at $81.23.

Japan’s Nikkei225 was 0.35% lower, while the broad-based Topix was unchanged.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.42%, while the small cap Kosdaq recorded a larger loss of 1.14%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.13 percent, making it the only major Asia-Pacific index to gain. The index is close to breaking its all-time high of 8,114.7 on August 1.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index Futures were at 17,694, below the HSI’s last closing price of 17,798.73.

Despite overnight gains by the Dow Jones in the US S&P500 And Nasdaq-Composite both fell, losing 0.32% and 0.85% respectively.

—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Alex Harring contributed to this report.