The S&P 500 and Dow ended at record highs on Tuesday, shrugging off weak consumer confidence data, as mining stocks surged following China's announcement of a sweeping stimulus package.

The indexes initially trimmed gains after a report from the Conference Board revealed an unexpected decline in US consumer confidence in September, driven by growing concerns about the labor market's health.

“Today's price action is predominantly about what happened overnight with the policy announcements from China, direct support for their equity market and pledges to cut interest rates in the future, has caused a really sharp move in international stocks in general,” said Zachary Hill, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“That's feeding through into parts of the US market, where you see some more China-sensitive, more cyclical industries like metals and mining materials sector outperforming.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.20 percent, to 42,208, the S&P 500 gained 0.25 percent, to 5,733 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.56 percent, to 18,075.

Copper and lithium miners rose. Freeport-McMoRan rose 7.93 percent, Southern Copper added 7.22 percent, Albemarle advanced 1.97 percentand Arcadium Lithium climbed 3.2 percent.

US-listed shares of Chinese firms also gained: Alibaba rose 7.88 percent, PDD Holdings added 11.79 percent and Li Auto advanced 11.37 percent, tracking gains in the domestic market.

Megacap stocks were mixed, with Nvidia gaining 3.9 percent, while Microsoft lost 1.15 percent. The broader technology sector rose 0.79 percent. (Reuters)