Asian stocks were subdued today, with Japanese and South Korean equities slipping, after crude oil prices resumed their slide and cooled investor sentiment. Japan's Nikkei lost 0.3 percent and South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.4 percent. Australian stocks bucked the trend and rose 0.4 percent. Prices of both Brent and U.S. crude dropped more than 3 percent yesterday, reversing a brief rebound and dragging U.S. energy shares down 1.8 percent.