Asia-Pacific markets were higher Friday with Japan’s Nikkei 225 leading gains, after Wall Street soared overnight following the Federal Reserve’s outsized rate cut.

The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate steady at around 0.25% — the highest rate since 2008 — at the conclusion of a two-day meeting Friday. 

Japan’s core consumer price index climbed 2.8% year on year, in line with Reuters estimates, versus a 2.7% rise in the previous month. Excluding fresh food and energy, inflation came in at 2%, versus 1.9% in the previous month.

The Japanese yen firmed 0.30% against the greenback to 142.20.

China also did not tinker with its key lending rates, with the one-year loan prime rate — which affects corporate and household loans — at 3.35% and the five-year LPR — a reference for mortgage rates — at 3.85%. 

Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 1.53% to close at 37,723.91, logging weekly gains of over 3%.

The broad-cased Topix gained 0.97% to 2,642.35.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 1.27% as of its final hour of trade.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 edged 0.16% higher to 3,201.05, wrapping up the week with gains of 1.3% after hitting its lowest level since January 2019 last Friday.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.49% to finish at 2,593.37 and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.19% to 748.33.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.21% to end at 8,209.5.

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes ended higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 1.26% to close at 42,025.19, crossing the 42,000 threshold for the first time.

The S&P 500 added 1.7% to end at 5,713.64, topping 5,700 for the first time.

The Nasdaq Composite surged 2.51% to finish at 18,013.98.

The three major averages are on pace for weekly gains, with the S&P 500 up nearly 1.6% through Thursday’s close. The Dow is toting a 1.5% jump on the week, while the Nasdaq is outperforming with a 1.9% advance.

—CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.

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 2.49%, while the broad-based Topix climbed 2.34%. The Japanese yen weakened 0.68% to 143.24 against the U.S. dollar.

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

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%. Hong Kong-listed shares of property developer China Vanke rose 7.4%.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 was 1.29% higher, led by real estate stocks up nearly 4%.

South Korea’s blue-chip Kospi slipped 0.30% after opening higher, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.11%.

Australia’s national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained steady in August at 4.2%, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics, in line with Reuters-polled analysts’ expectation, while employment additions at 47,500 surpassed estimates of 25,000 additions.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.35%.

New Zealand’s GDP for the second quarter contracted by 0.2% from the previous quarter, according to the official data released Thursday morning, less than Reuters poll estimates of a 0.4% decline.

Bank of Japan is poised to kick off a two-day meeting ending Friday, where the central bankers will make a key rate decision, after the central bank ended its decades-long ultra-low interest rates regime earlier this year.

Taiwan’s central bank is set to make a key rate decision Thursday, and release its revised economic growth and inflation forecasts for this year.

The Taiwan Weighted Index rose 1.01%.

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

—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

Asia-Pacific stocks traded mixed on Tuesday with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping over 2%, as investors awaited for the Federal Reserve to kick off its monetary loosening cycle.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 2.06%, while the Topix was down 1.8% as the yen strengthened for a sixth straight session, last at 140.40 against the dollar.

The yen strengthened to 139.58 yen overnight, its weakest level since July 2023.

The Fed is expected to announce its first interest rate cut since March 2022, but markets are split over the size of the reduction from the two-day policy meeting which begins Tuesday.

U.S. retail sales data is also set to take center stage as investors monitor the health of the consumer in the lead up to the Fed’s meeting.

Traders in Asia will also parse Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports for August, which rose 10.7% from a year ago, official data showed Tuesday, while falling 4.7% from the previous month. The figures compare with a Reuters forecast of a 15% year-on-year expansion and a 3.3% month-on-month drop.

Tuesday’s economic data also includes India’s wholesale prices for August, which are anticipated to have gained 1.85% year-on-year, a cooler reading than 2.04% in July.

Shares of Chinese appliance maker Midea Group surged over 9% in their Hong Kong debut from its offer price of HK$54.80 apiece. This is the city’s largest listing in more than three years.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 1.1%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24%.

South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan’s markets were closed for a holiday.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.55% to a new record high at 41,622.08, tracking the rise in the S&P 500 which was up 0.13% settling at 5,633.09. If its momentum holds up, the broad-based index could notch a new all-time this week.

Meanwhile the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.52% to finish at 17,592.13, weighed down by tech stocks.

—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Pia Singh contributed to this report.

The NYMEX oil chart has three technical features. They signal a continuation of the uptrend with a target near $87. However, movement toward this target is hindered by several resistance features which tend to slow the trend momentum.

The first technical observation is the behavior of the Guppy Multiple Moving Average indicator. The long-term group of averages is consistently well separated, indicating strong investor support for the uptrend. When price drops, investors come into the market as buyers, supporting the trend.

There is no current evidence of compression in the long-term GMMA. Compression shows that some investors are joining in the selling activity and signals the development of a bearish outlook. Price consistently rebounds from the upper edge of the long-term GMMA and this shows continued support for the uptrend.

The second technical observation is the role of the uptrend line. From June 2017 until August 2018, the uptrend line acted as a support level. This confirmed trend strength. But in August 2018, the price fell below the trend line and this is indicative of some trend weakness.

Now the uptrend line acts as a resistance feature. Price trends to move towards the value of the trend line and then retreat away from it. And this shows some trend weakness — but it is not, by itself, an indication of an end of the uptrend.

The third technical feature is the consistent behavior of oil price as it moves in trading bands. Oil has a well-established pattern of moving in trading bands around $11 wide.

Applying trade band projection methods gave a target near $76. This has been achieved and the pullback from that price level is an expected part of the trading band pattern. A breakout above the $76 level gives an upside target near $87.

A strong bullish trend continuation is shown when price is able to move above resistance near $76 and above the value of the trend line. This would signal that the trend line is again acting as a support feature.

All the support features and the trend strength continue to suggest that oil price is experiencing a temporary retreat. The longer term trading band target is near $87, so traders will buy in anticipation of trend continuation.

The ANTSYSS trade method is used to extract good returns from this trend behavior.

Daryl Guppy is a trader and author of Trend Trading, The 36 Strategies of the Chinese for Financial Traders, which can be found at www.guppytraders.com. He is a regular guest on CNBC Asia Squawk Box. He is a speaker at trading conferences in China, Asia, Australia and Europe. He is a special consultant to AxiCorp.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

WATCH: Here’s what drives the price of oil

Coincidence in the markets can mean nothing, or it can provide a very useful trading edge.

Looking at the below chart, you could be excused for thinking that was the Dow for the period from September 2017 to the current date. The behavioral characteristics are the same.

However, it’s the Nikkei 225 and it’s a spitting image of the Dow. Technically, we apply the same analysis and reach the same conclusions that we would apply to the Dow even though most people would argue that the fundamental, political and economic situations are very different.

The first similarity in behavior is the strong trend rise to a peak in January 2018. Then the market sold off very dramatically. The index dipped below the lower edge of the long-term group of averages in the Guppy Multiple Moving Average indicator.

That was followed by a rapid rebound and a period of sideways movement with a slight upward bias. In recent weeks, both indexes have rallied strongly and retested the highs.

It’s not only the pattern of behavior that is the same. The dates of the peak behavior are the same. However, the detail of the daily index behavior is different in the Nikkei and the Dow, so we cannot use one index as a leading indicator of what will happen in the next day or so in the other index.

The GMMA trend in the Dow is stronger than the Nikkei trend, so there is a little more risk in the Nikkei. Dow trend strength is shown with the long-term steady separation in the long-term GMMA. It’s confirmed by the behavior of the short-term GMMA, which has not dipped into the long-term GMMA. The Nikkei trend is more volatile with two substantial tests of the long-term GMMA in April and September 2017.

The most important conclusion from this similarity in behavior is that a continued breakout in the Dow will be replicated with a similar breakout behavior in the Nikkei. Applying the same trade band projection methods to the Nikkei gives an upside target near 26,300.

Of course, a Dow collapse would also be replicated by a Nikkei collapse. The risk comes in two ways. First, it’s important to know which index leads in terms of behavior. Logic would suggest it’s the larger market, the Dow, so Nikkei traders will watch the American index for advance indications of how the Nikkei may behave.

Second, this behavioral relationship tells us that holding open positions in the Dow and the Nikkei will not provide safety often attributed to portfolio diversification because of the high level of behavioral correlation.

Despite that, the Nikkei is the better trading opportunity with a higher level of volatility and, hence, leverage. Low-to-high for the Nikkei is 18 percent compared to a 13 percent return from the Dow for the same behavioral move. The Nikkei and the Dow may be joined at the hip when it comes to behavior, but the Nikkei is moving faster.

Daryl Guppy is a trader and author of Trend Trading, The 36 Strategies of the Chinese for Financial Traders, which can be found at www.guppytraders.com. He is a regular guest on CNBC Asia Squawk Box. He is a speaker at trading conferences in China, Asia, Australia and Europe. He is a special consultant to AxiCorp.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.