Staff writersUpdated August 4, 2026 — 11:25am,first published August 4, 2026 — 5:19amThe Australian sharemarket advanced in early trade on Tuesday, buoyed by a strong session on Wall Street, where stocks rallied the edge of their all-time high after easing oil prices helped calm investors’ worries about inflation.The S&P/ASX 200 was up 57.10 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 9076.50 at 11am AEST, with tech stocks and banks powering the gains, while mining stocks were lower. The local bourse added 0.5 per cent on Monday after President Donald Trump said over the weekend he decided to hold off on new strikes against Iran at the urging of allies in the region. The Australian dollar traded at US69.99¢.Wall Street has rallied to start the week, lifting sentiment on the Australian market.APTech stocks had a strong morning after America’s tech megacaps posted their best day since March overnight as Amazon became only the fifth company ever to top a $US3 trillion ($4.3 trillion) market-cap threshold, having gained 4.6 per cent. Data analytics software giant Palantir Technologies soared 15 per cent in after-hours trading after it raised its sales and income forecasts.The bullish sentiment swapped over to the local tech sector, with WiseTech Global up 2 per cent in early trade, Xero climbing 3.4 per cent and Technology One up 3 per cent. Family tracking app Life 360 rallied 6.4 per cent and network provider Megaport jumped 4.8 per cent. Data centre owner Goodman Group rose 0.8 per cent, driving the property sector higher.Financial stocks, which make up more than a third of the ASX, also helped lift the market, with all big four banks posting strong gains. CBA was up 1.2 per cent, Westpac gained 1.3 per cent, National Australia Bank rose 1.9 per cent and ANZ Bank added 1.6 per cent.But materials companies - the other heavyweights on the local market - struggled as BHP, the world’s largest miner, dropped 1.9 per cent. The price of iron ore, Australia’s biggest export, sank to the lowest level in more than a year as concerns surfaced about a major physical trader of the commodity Radiant World, compounding existing market softness linked to a challenging demand outlook.Global commodities traders Vitol and Cargill have stopped doing business with Radiant World, a privately held company, amid concerns over fake invoices, Bloomberg News reported. Futures for the steelmaking ingredient fell by as much as 2.3 per cent to $US93.65 a tonne in Singapore.Rio Tinto shares slipped 0.3 per cent, while Fortescue Metals edged up 0.4 per cent. Gold miners were mixed as traders weighed the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path as cooling tensions in the Middle East could ease energy-driven inflation. Bullion wavered at around $US4050 an ounce.Qantas slipped 0.2 per cent. The Flying Kangaroo is considering outsourcing up to 1000 roles to India as part of a deal with consulting giant Accenture that looks to harness the power of artificial intelligence. The airline would consider shifting jobs in marketing, finance, human resources and other back-office positions, the company said this morning, conforming media reports.Meanwhile, the energy sector edged up 0.1 per cent even as the suggestions of renewed diplomacy pushed oil prices lower overnight, with Brent crude down about 4.6 per cent to just under $US84 a barrel. Brent’s price careened between $US72 and $US102 last month as worries rose and fell about when the war with Iran would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again to deliver crude to customers worldwide.Trump said his latest offer of talks was a “last chance” for Iran after he called off what he said was a major attack on the Islamic Republic. Iran denied it was negotiating with the US, but said talks with Oman to get more ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz are making progress.“I want to give them every last chance before decapitation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “You’ll find out today or tomorrow. I mean, they’re going to go quickly, one way or the other. It’s not very complex.”Local oil and gas giants Woodside and Santos both added 0.4 per cent, while refiners Ampol and Viva Energy were down 2.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent.On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 per cent and closed just 0.1 per cent below its record set earlier this summer. It’s coming off a wild July, where it swung up and down as oil prices shot higher because of the war with Iran and other worries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.1 per cent.The ease in oil prices helped US airlines and other companies with big fuel bills lead the market. United Airlines flew 5.8 per cent higher, while American Airlines climbed 5 per cent. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings steamed 6.6 per cent higher.Boeing soared 8 per cent. US regulators certified its new 737 MAX-7 planes, clearing it for commercial service, following years of work to provide pilots with clearer information and warnings, along with other improvements.Tyson Foods added 2.9 per cent after the meat company reported a slightly stronger profit than analysts expected. CEO Donnie King said strength is continuing in the company’s chicken business and its prepared foods, which include brands like Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farm.It joined a lengthening list of big US companies to beat analyst profit forecasts. That’s imperative for Wall Street because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate earnings over the long term, and worries were rising that US stock prices may have broadly already shot too high.Keeping markets unsettled, though, are the big swings for stocks of companies that make computer chips. They’ve been veering up and down for weeks on worries about whether their surging revenues because of the artificial-intelligence boom are sustainable.If AI ends up producing less profit and productivity than hoped, Big Tech companies could curtail their spending sprees on data centres that have helped chip stocks soar to tremendous heights. Micron Technology went from a drop of 6.4 per cent to close 0.7 per cent higher. It’s still up roughly 190 per cent for the year so far. Meanwhile, AI chip behemoth Nvidia jumped 2.9 per cent.The manic swings for AI stocks have been most dramatic in South Korea, where the Kospi index is dominated by just two tech titans, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Seoul’s Kospi fell 5.1 per cent Monday, coming off Friday’s 17.9 per cent surge that was its best day in history.In neighbouring Japan, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.9 per cent after the US and Japan confirmed they had moved together to prop up the value of the Japanese yen against the dollar. A stronger yen would help to limit inflation in Japan, but it could also potentially hurt Japan’s exporters.From our partners