The dollar's dip helped give a boost to oil and commodity prices and helped to underpin shares of resource companies.
Investors were cautious as U.S. financial markets reopen after a holiday and face a slew of key earnings reports due this week from heavyweight stocks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, IBM General Electric and Google.
"Investors need to be careful ahead of earnings reports. It's been the case so far that companies that report results tend to face profit-taking as stocks had gained sharply by already factoring in solid figures," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan eased 0.4 percent, with technology shares the biggest drag by sector.
Stronger-than-expected results last week from tech bellwether Intel Corp failed to excite investors, while steep loan losses reported by JPMorgan Chase & Co. rattled investors on worries that U.S. consumers are still struggling under the weight of heavy debts.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei average dipped 0.12 percent after dropping 1.2 percent on Monday, pulling back from a 15-month high hit last week. Honda Motor Co was 1.2 percent lower and Toyota Motor Corp slipped 1.1 percent.