Bangkok, Oct 21 (AP) Shares in Europe and Asia were mostly higher on Tuesday, with Japan's benchmark creeping closer to the symbolically important 50,000 level as conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi became the country's first female prime minister.

Germany's DAX edged 0.1 per cent lower to 24,228.07, while the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.1 per cent at 8,214.58. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 per cent to 9,422.48.

The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.1 per cent.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gave up earlier, bigger gains after Takaichi prevailed in a vote in Japan's parliament, rising just 0.3 per cent to 49,316.06. She is expected to support market-friendly policies such as low interest rates and more government spending.

The US dollar rose to 151.78 Japanese yen from 150.75 yen. If Takaichi gets her way in slowing interest rate increases by the Bank of Japan, the yen may remain relatively weak against the dollar. That would hinder the central bank's efforts to curb inflation, which now stands above its target rate of about 2 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7 per cent to 26,027.55, and the Shanghai Composite index was up 1.4 per cent at 3,916.33.

Expectations that US President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month during a regional summit have raised hopes for an easing of trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

Chinese Communist Party leaders are meeting this week to set a policy blueprint for the next five years, but the outcome of those closed-door talks is likely only to filter out over the coming weeks and months.

In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.2 per cent to 3,823.84, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.7 per cent to 9,094.70.

Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.2 per cent.

US stocks rallied on Monday to the cusp of their records.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 per cent, pulling within 0.3 per cent of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.1 per cent and the Nasdaq composite gained 1.4 per cent.

Apple rose 3.9 per cent to its own record high amid optimism about demand for its latest iPhone design. It was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

Cleveland-Cliffs jumped 21.5 per cent after the steel company's CEO, Lourenco Goncalves, said it would provide details soon about a potential deal with a major global steel producer that could mean bigger profits. He also said his company has potentially found signs of rare earths at sites in Michigan and Minnesota.

Such materials have grabbed the global spotlight after China recently put curbs on the export of its own rare earths, a move that Trump characterised as hostile. Trump's ensuing threat of higher tariffs triggered big swings for Wall Street, but the concerns eased a bit after Trump said such high tax rates on Chinese imports are unsustainable.

Amazon's stock held up despite a widespread outage for its cloud computing service that caused disruption for internet users around the world on Monday. Amazon's stock rose 1.6 per cent.

This week features a raft of big names reporting their latest quarterly results, including Coca-Cola on Tuesday, Tesla on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble on Friday.

The pressure is on companies to show that their profits are growing following a torrid rally of 35 per cent for the S&P 500 from a low in April. Companies face pressure to improve their profitability to counter fears that stock prices have gone too high.

Corporate earnings reports also have gained importance because they provide details on the strength of the US economy when the US government's shutdown has delayed important economic updates. That's making the job of the Federal Reserve more difficult, as it tries to decide whether high inflation or the slowing job market is the bigger issue for the economy.

In other dealings early Tuesday, US benchmark crude oil rose 20 cents to USD 57.22 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 21 cents to USD 61.22 per barrel.

The euro slipped to USD 1.1624 from USD 1.1641. (AP) SKS SKS