SYDNEY — Australian shares fell in early afternoon trading Tuesday, with the S&P/ASX 200 index down 23.2 points, or 0.26 percent, to 8,807.8 as of 1:44 p.m. in Sydney, as weakness in gold, copper and lithium stocks offset gains in technology, healthcare and the major banks.

The pullback came despite a broadly positive session on Wall Street overnight, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 0.75 percent and the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.1 percent, according to figures cited by The Motley Fool Australia. SPI futures had pointed to a roughly flat opening for the ASX 200 on Tuesday, with the index expected to open just 8 points, or 0.1 percent, lower.

Tuesday's session followed a choppy start to the trading week. The ASX 200 fell 13 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 8,831 on Monday, retreating from a one-week high after briefly trading in positive territory during the session. According to Trading Economics, sentiment weakened Monday after data showed Australian job advertisements eased for a third time this year in June, underscoring the drag from higher borrowing costs, while investors also turned cautious ahead of China's June inflation figures, due later this week.

By Tuesday, a hawkish shift in tone from the U.S. Federal Reserve, combined with lingering geopolitical tensions, had triggered what MarketIndex described as a substantial reallocation of capital toward the U.S. dollar. Bullish net futures positions on the greenback reached $39.7 billion as of June 30, marking the highest level of investor optimism in more than a decade, following a 2 percent........

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