NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks roared on Tuesday, pushing the major indices sharply higher.

Behind the sudden boost in stocks was another about-turn by the increasingly erratic U.S. President Donald Trump who two weeks ahead of his promised new tariffs on Chinese goods, now says he will delay imposing tariffs on around half the $300 billion in goods he had proposed.

Astonishingly the president said the decision to delay the impositions until 15 December was so as not to affect Christmas shoppers.

Cellphones, laptops, clothing, shoes and other consumer goods,will be impacted by the move.

"We're doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers," Trump told reporters in New Jersey. "Just in case they might have an impact on people, what we've done is we've delayed it so that they won't be relevant to the Christmas shopping season."

The U.S. Trade Representative's Office announced the decision.

Once that occurred U.S. stocks started being bought up. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 372.54 points, or 1.44%, to 26,279.91.

The Standard and Poor's 500 added 42.48 points, or 1.47%, to 2,926.23.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 152.95 points, or 1.95%, to 8,016.36.

The U.S. dollar too jumped sharply, sending the Japanese yen tumbling to 106.73. The Swiss franc fell to 0.9769. The euro sank to 1.1172.

The commodity currencies, reflecting their strong trade ties with China, all rose. The Canadian dollar jumped to 1.3223. The Australian dollar rose half-a-cent to 0.6798, while the New Zealand dollar was a fractioin higher at 0.6452.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 advanced 0.33%. The German Dax rose 0.60%, while the Paris-based CAC 40 was 0.99% higher.

Asian stocks were impacted by the stock, currency and bond markets plunge in Argentina.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng tumbled 513.89 points or 1.99% to 25,310.83.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surrendered 229.38 points or 1.11% to 20,455.44.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 17.73 points or 0.63% to 2,797.26.

The Australian All Ords fell 22.00 points or 0.33% to 6,648.26.