Wall Street has rebounded from its worst Christmas Eve sell-off ever – with the Dow Jones surging almost 1100 points.

The Australian share market has followed that strong lead, with the ASX all ordinaries up 73.10 to 5632.70 (+1.31 per cent) at 11.30am AEDT.

While no longer in bear market territory, it is still the worst December for US markets since the height of the Great Depression in 1931.

The Trump administration’s attempts to restore confidence in the market may have helped US markets somewhat.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters that US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s job was “100 per cent” safe, and that President Donald Trump was happy with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

His reassurance comes two days after Mr Trump tweeted that the Fed, by maintaining its interest-rate-hiking cycle, is the US economy’s “only problem”.

It also follows that the President had privately discussed firing Mr Powell – an unprecedented event which would have triggered an even bigger market meltdown.

Sharpest rebound in a decade

The Dow Jones index surged 1086 points, or 5 per cent, to 22,878 at 4pm (New York time) – its biggest single-day jump since early March 2009.

The benchmark S&P 500 finished sharply higher, up 5 per cent to 2468.

Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index outperformed, rising 5.8 per cent to 6554.

“It seems like a bear-market rally,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.

“Usually they don’t last very long, but this could continue till the month ends.

“We are in a bear market and when that happens the whole market gets cheap.

“Investors will likely go for low [valuation] names because they could get into the market that way without getting into trouble.”

Retail stocks, particularly Amazon, provided the biggest boost to the market.

Amazon’s share price soared 9.5 per cent after reporting that it achieved a “record-breaking” sales this holiday season.

Furthermore, sales in the US holiday shopping season rose 5.1 per cent to more than $US850 billion, the strongest in six years, according to a report by Mastercard.

Energy stocks also lifted the market, after the price of Brent crude oil bounced back 8.4 per cent to $US54.69 per barrel.

-ABC