Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday with the Nikkei up as the U.S. dollar hovered around a two-week high against the yen, but Shanghai and Hong Kong off in the morning sessions.
The Nikkei 225 rose 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.05% and the Hang Seng index eased 0.23%.
In the news, China Resources (0291.HK) Co.'s chairman has been stripped of his position as the firm's Communist Party chief as part of a corruption investigation, state media said Saturday.
Markets in Hong Kong were closed Monday for the Easter holiday while Australia and New Zealand were off from Good Friday to Easter Monday and will close Friday for ANZAC Day.
Overnight, U.S. stocks rose buoyed by U.S. data and first-quarter earnings. The Dow 30 rose 0.25%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.38%, while the Nasdaq index rose 0.64%.
In the U.S. earlier, the Conference Board reported that its index of leading indicators, which measures future economic activity, increased 0.8% in March after a 0.5% rise in February, beating expectations for a 0.7% reading.
Elsewhere, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index decreased to 0.20 in March from 0.53 in February, in line with expectations.
European indices, meanwhile, were closed due to the Easter holiday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. is to release private sector data on existing home sales.