"Had a very good telephone conversation with President Xi of China," US president Donald Trump tweeted earlier, saying the countries' teams would begin talks prior to the pair's meeting at G20 in Japan next week.

Markets across the globe closed higher yesterday and were mostly set for a positive start today.

Among the bigger moves by mining stocks on equity markets, Cobalt 27 Capital Corp (TSXV: KBLT) leapt 17.58% yesterday on news of Pala Investments' proposed acquisition to create Nickel 28 Capital Corp.

The move puts its share price up 23.64% year-to-date at C$4.08 but is still a long way from the $9.58 it was trading at 12 months ago, having fallen in line with the drop in cobalt prices.

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) jumped 7.4% to a 17-month high of $3.76.

It had provided an update earlier this week on construction at its 6 million tonne per annum Kakula copper mine joint venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is headed back towards the $4 mark, which it traded above for much of 2017, before it plunged in February 2018 as the DRC flagged changes to its mining code.

Ivanhoe has gained more than 58% so far this year.

Toronto's metals and mining stocks closed up 1.69% yesterday.

Australia's metals and mining stocks were up 1.45% at the time of writing, with BHP (ASX: BHP) up more than 1.7%.