U.S. stocks surged in early trading Tuesday after China’s central bank cut its key interest rate in a bid to boost growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street’s fear gauge, soared 45.34 percent to end at 40.74 Monday.

Benchmark U.S. crude gained 59 cents to $38.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Many traders had hoped Beijing would have taken support measures, such as an interest rate cut, over the weekend after China’s main stocks markets slumped 11 percent last week. Best Buy recorded the biggest gain in the index, climbing $4.13, or 14.1 percent, to $33.42, after the home electronics chain reported better-than-expected results for the quarter. The S&P 500 shed 77.68 points, or 3.94 per cent, to 1,893.21 on Monday, Xinhua reported.

“But if the market still goes into a panic, the only thing they can do is suspend trading”, she said. Its broader S&P index also fell 3.9 percent.

But nearly all top-flight shares were ahead today, with the index pulled higher by a recovery in mining stocks such as BHP Billiton and Antofagasta – which have been pounded by the falls in commodity prices caused by China’s woes.

By noon, the blue-chip index was up about 215 points, or 3.6 per cent, at 6,110 – after the previous day’s session saw the top flight fall by 4.7 per cent.

Uncertainty over the stock market and the Chinese economy has driven sharp selling, and many analysts expect more intervention from the government to bolster growth.

Among the market’s leading stocks, Apple Inc. fell 5.6 percent to $99.88 a share, General Electric Co. was down 4.9 percent at $23.39 and Netflix Inc. plummeted 10.8 percent to $93.15 a share. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index shed 0.6 percent after losing more than 5 percent on Monday. Despite a huge amount of government stimulus, it seems investors have lost faith in China’s stocks and are now focused on an impossible to answer question: how bad will China’s economic slowdown be?

In currency markets, the dollar rose to 119.66 yen from Monday’s 118.69 yen.

The volume traded on the Australian market on Tuesday was double that of usual levels.