Japan Financial Markets

Asian shares are declining, as rising oil prices and worries about inflation work as a dampener on some markets. Robust corporate earnings reports have instilled some optimism. Benchmarks fell in early Tuesday trading in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai, while they rose in Australia. On Wall Street, stocks slipped further from their record heights Monday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.5%, still near its all-time high set on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.3%. Wall Street is near records in large part because profits are booming for big U.S. companies.