2013.06.1104:55:13UTC+00Most Asian stocks decline ahead of Bank of Japan

Japanese stocks traded cautiously Tuesday before the Bank of Japan’s policy decision, while a drop in Samsung Electronics weighed on the South Korean market.

After declining steeply against the yen last week, the U.S. dollar continued to edge closer to the closely watched ¥100 mark overnight — recently at ¥98.83 compared with ¥98.76 late Monday in New York.

The dollar was supported after Standard & Poor’s upgraded its ratings view on the U.S. to stable from negative on Monday, citing the country’s strong economic performance.

Investors were cautious before the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting, scheduled to finalize on Tuesday. Central bank Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda is expected to maintain the easy financial policy launched earlier this year. Some economists expect the Bank of Japan could extend its low-priced fund-supplying operation to two years or longer from one year.

Any surprises from the central bank could fuel the volatility that has dominated Japanese stocks since the market started to sell off on May 23. The index is now roughly 15.4% lower than its recent peak.

Japanese stocks were slightly move before the meeting, with the Nikkei Stock Average down 0.2% after Monday’s 4.9% increase.

Softbank Corp. gave up 0.5% in Tokyo after the company agreed to raise its offer for Sprint Nextel Corp. to $21.6 billion from $20.1 billion previously.

Also in Tokyo, Olympus Corp. missed 1.9% after the Tokyo Stock Exchange said it would remove the company’s “security on alert” designation, nearly one and a half years after the warning was issued due to problems with the company’s internal controls.

South Korea’s Kospi Composite moved back 0.7%, with the index weighed by its single largest constituent, Samsung Electronics Co., which surrendered 2.2% on concerns that its Galaxy S4 smartphone may not be selling as well as expected.

Australia resumed trading after closing on Monday for a public holiday, getting its first chance to react to the events that influenced the previous session — namely, last week’s forecast-beating U.S. nonfarm payrolls data and disappointing Chinese economic data that came out over the weekend.

The S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.2%.

Markets in mainland China remained closed for a three-day public holiday, though Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong remained weighed by the poor economic data out over the weekend. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slipped 0.5% and the Hang Seng Index was not in the right track with 0.5% lost.