U.S. stock futures climbed higher Thursday as traders digested the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday decision to lower interest rates by a half percentage point. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 508 points, or 1.2%. The Dow closed Wednesday lower in the immediate aftermath of the Fed’s announcement. Futures tied to the S&P 500 climbed 1.6%, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 2.2%. The Fed slashed its overnight lending rate to a range of 4.75% to 5% from 5.25% to 5.5% on Wednesday, which came as a surprise to some investors who criticized the size of this initial cut. This is the first rate reduction delivered by the Fed in four years. Tech stocks rallied in premarket as the rate cut spurred investors to return to a risk-on mood. Nvidia and AMD shares popped more than 3% each. Micron Technology traded more than 2% higher. Other big tech stocks such as Meta and Alphabet climbed more than 2% higher. Stocks leveraged to lower rates spurring the economy also jumped Thursday morning. Financial giant JPMorgan Chase rose 1.3%. Industrial stock Caterpillar and Home Depot advanced around 2% each. “This was the best news I’ve heard from the Fed in years,” Jeremy Siegel, professor emeritus at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday regarding the 50bps interest rate cut. “This is fantastic news for the market, and great news for the economy.” After seesawing for most of Wednesday afternoon, stocks ultimately closed the session lower. Both the S&P 500 and 30-stock Dow initially rallied to new record highs right after the Fed announced its interest rate cut decision. U.S. Treasury yields were little changed Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday. At 7:17 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was up by over 2 basis points at 3.713%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last less than 1 basis point lower at 3.598%. Asia-Pacific markets rose in choppy trading Thursday, as investors assessed the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by a half-percentage point. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.13% to end at 37,155.33, while the broad-based Topix climbed 2.01% to finish at 2,616.87. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 2.17% in the final hour of trade. Mainland China’s CSI 300 was 0.8% higher settling at 3,196.36, led by real estate stocks which were up more than 3%. South Korea’s blue-chip Kospi ended 0.21% higher at 2,580.8, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.86% to 739.15.  Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 surged 0.61% to close at 8,191.9, hitting a fresh record high. The Taiwan Weighted Index rose 1.68% to finish at 22,042.69. Oil prices fell in Asian trading on Thursday after a larger-than-expected Federal Reserve interest rate cut sparked concerns about the U.S. economy. Brent crude futures for November fell 34 cents, or 0.46%, to $73.31 a barrel by 0015 GMT, while WTI crude futures for October declined to $70.49 a barrel, down 42 cents or 0.59%. Gold prices climbed on Thursday after hitting a record high in the previous session, as the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a super-sized interest rate cut. Spot gold rose 1% to $2,585.87 per ounce after scaling a record high of $2,599.92 on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures edged 0.5% higher to $2,611.20.