British News Agency

The Fed lowered its benchmark borrowing rate by a half percentage point, bringing its target range to 4.75 percent to 5 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.49 percent, while the broad-based Topix climbed 2.34 percent. The Japanese yen weakened 0.68 percent to 143.24 against the U.S. dollar.

In lockstep with the Fed, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its interest rate by 50 basis points to 5.25, as the city’s currency is pegged to the greenback.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 1.20 percent. Hong Kong-listed shares of property developer China Vanke rose 7.4 percent. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was 1.29 percent higher.

South Korea’s blue-chip Kospi slipped 0.30 percent after opening higher, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.11 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.35 percent.

New Zealand’s GDP for the second quarter contracted by 0.2 percent from the previous quarter, according to the official data released Thursday morning.

Taiwan’s central bank will make a key rate decision on Thursday and release its revised economic growth and inflation forecasts for this year. The Taiwan Weighted Index rose 1.01 percent.

In the U.S., all three major indexes fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.25 percent to 41,503.1, while the S&P 500 fell 0.29 percent to end at 5,618.26. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.31 percent to 17,573.3.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 surged to fresh highs during intraday trading before reversing course to close lower.