The Australian sharemarket has fallen despite gains in New York after the US and China signalled willingness to keep trade negotiations alive, Middle East tensions cooled, and the artificial-intelligence rally powered ahead.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose in early trading but had dipped 6.9 points, or less than 0.1 per cent, as of 11.58am on Tuesday AEDT after the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey showed sentiment weakened in October to a one-year low. Large gains among gold miners and the iron ore giants stemmed losses in nine out of the 11 sectors after the S&P 500 gained 1.6 per cent overnight.

Risk appetite increased after President Donald Trump’s administration signalled openness to a deal with Beijing to quell fresh trade tensions while China’s Ministry of Commerce urged further negotiations to resolve outstanding issues.

Sentiment was also buoyed as Trump visited the Middle East to celebrate a deal halting the war in Gaza and securing the release of prisoners held by Hamas. Trump said food and aid had begun to flow into Gaza, which has been devastated by the conflict.

Broadcom soared about 10 per cent in New York as OpenAI agreed to buy its custom chips and networking equipment in a multi-year agreement. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 per cent as of 10.05 am in Tokyo (12.05am AEDT).

“There’s a renewed TACO [Trump always chickens out] trade going on, with the US clearly worried China will act aggressively (even if somewhat self-destructively) on rare earths curbs,” said Capital.com market analyst Kyle Rodda.

“That’s got the markets pricing in that the mooted 100 per cent tariff on China will not go ahead on November 1, and that this is all a speed bump that will, in time, allow equity markets to regain Friday’s lost ground.”

On the ASX, Rio Tinto jumped 3.1 per cent, BHP 2.6 per cent and Fortescue 2.2 per cent after “benchmark” ore with 62 per cent iron rose to $US109.20 ($167.23) a tonne on October 13, according to S&P Global Platts, which is the highest price recorded since February 21. Rio on Tuesday said that Chinese steel production in the first nine months of the year was up 4 per cent on last year, while Chinese steel exports were up 9 per cent, suggesting domestic demand for steel was failing to keep pace.

Spot gold held near $US4109 an ounce at 7.06 am in Singapore (10.06am AEDT), after climbing as much as 2.5 per cent on Monday to a fresh record as simmering US-China trade tensions erupted. ASX gold miners surged higher on Tuesday, with Newmont up 3.2 per cent, Northern Star 2.9 per cent, Evolution 3.4 per cent, Genesis Minerals 5.9 per cent, Perseus 1.5 per cent, and Vault 3.7 per cent.

Silver prices also touched an all-time high above $US52.50 an ounce, as a historic short squeeze in London added momentum to a rally that’s been fuelled by surging demand for safe-haven assets. Silver Mines surged 7.1 per cent, Andean Silver 7 per cent and Unico Silver 6.5 per cent, while Sun Silver gained 5.4 per cent.

Stocks in focus

SRG Global rocketed 21.5 per cent after announcing it would buy marine infrastructure group TAMS for $85 million in a cash-scrip deal.

Paladin Energy jumped 7.2 per cent after its quarterly production report released on Tuesday showed that the ramp-up at the Langer Heinrich Mine in Namibia continued to plan with a more than 60 per cent increase in production year on year. Other ASX uranium stocks also surged, with Deep Yellow up 9.4 per cent and Bannerman 5.9 per cent and Boss Energy 7 per cent.

Aussie Broadband fell 2.9 per cent despite reporting that it had added 22,000 net new broadband customers since July 1, including 3600 customers since the start of October.

Brazilian Rare Earths jumped 7 per cent after the Gina Rinehart-backed company announced it has raised $120 million selling new shares as it seeks to develop a project for the key materials used in electric vehicles and defence equipment.

Capstone Copper rose 4.1 per cent after announcing that it had agreed to sell a 25 per cent stake in its Santo Domingo copper-iron-gold project in Chile to Orion Resource Partners for a cash consideration of up to $US360 million ($552 million). Fellow copper producer Sandfire Resources rose 3.7 per cent.