The Australian sharemarket has seesawed 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 flicked between gains and losses on Tuesday morning but was flat at 8883 points at 2.10pm AEDT as large gains among gold miners and the iron ore giants stemmed losses in six out of the 11 sectors.

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 overnight 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 (12.05pm 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.”

Traders also digested the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey, which showed sentiment weakened in October to a one-year low.

On the ASX, Rio Tinto jumped 1.7 per cent, BHP 1.9 per cent and Fortescue 0.8 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 3.5 per cent, Northern Star 2.3 per cent, Evolution 1.6 per cent, Genesis Minerals 4.5 per cent, and Vault 1.8 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 and Sun Silver both surged 7.1 per cent, while Andean Silver jumped 8.3 per cent, and Unico Silver gained 4.8 per cent.

The big four banks all fell, led by Westpac, which dropped 1.5 per cent, and National Australia Bank, down 1.2 per cent. Commonwealth Bank edged down 0.8 per cent, while ANZ dipped 0.2 per cent as UBS increased its share price target for the major bank to $30, from $26.50, after chief executive Nuno Matos on Monday revealed an ambitious cost-cutting plan to lift performance.

Stocks in focus

SRG Global rocketed 25.4 per cent after announcing it would buy marine infrastructure group TAMS for $85 million in a cash-scrip deal.

Paladin Energy jumped 7.6 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 12.1 per cent, Bannerman 7 per cent and Boss Energy 7.3 per cent.

DroneShield lost 4.6 per cent as investors took profits, with the stock having already jumped more than 660 per cent this year.

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 8.8 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. Other rare earth producers also fired, with Iluka up 14.5 per cent, Arafura 18.9 per cent, and Lynas 4.7 per cent.

Capstone Copper rose 4.4 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 2.9 per cent.