ASIA STOCKS fall

Japanese stocks continued to be weighed down by a strong yen on Tuesday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200  dropped 0.1% before the Reserve Bank of Australia’s rate decision.

The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its policy interest rate by a quarter percentage point Tuesday to an all-time low of 2.5%, as markets had widely expected.

In a statement accompanying the decision, RBA Gov. Glenn Stevens cited the Australian currency as a factor, saying the Aussie dollar "has depreciated by around 15% since early April, although it remains at a high level" and that a further easing "would help to foster a rebalancing of growth in the economy."

Stevens also left the door open for further cuts, saying "the inflation outlook could provide some scope to ease policy further, should that be required to support demand."

The Australian economy is threatened by a slowdown in the nation's mining boom, with Stevens having warned last week of a sharp drop in investment in the sector in the coming months.

In his statement Tuesday, Stevens said "the economy has been growing a bit below trend over the past year."

The U.S. dollar weakened against the yen  on Tuesday, putting pressure on stocks in Tokyo.

Mitsubishi Materials Corp. rose 2.6% in Tokyo after the Nikkei reported that its group operating profit for the first quarter is believed to have risen more than 30% on year to about ¥15 billion ($153 million), driven by an improvement in its copper segment and a weaker yen.

Also in Tokyo, Toshiba Corp. outperformed the broader market, down just 0.5% after a separate Nikkei report said that the company plans to build a NAND flash-memory factory in a joint venture with SanDisk , with the total investment estimated to be ¥400 billion.

South Korea’s Kospi  fell 0.7%.

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