At noon AEST on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 17.1 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 7,790.4, while the broader All Ordinaries had gained 22.6 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 8,048.6.
On Friday night, Australia time, the US Labor Department reported that US non-farm payrolls increased by 300,000 in March, far more than the 214,000 expected.
The market's implied odds for the Federal Reserve to cut rates in June fell from over 60 per cent to around 50 per cent following the readout, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Instead of leading to a selloff, however, Wall Street rallied on the news, with the S&P500 rising 1.1 per cent and the Dow Jones climbing 0.8 per cent.
St George senior economist Jarek Kowcza said that investors were interpreting the report as a sign that the US economy – and by extension, earnings growth – was in good shape.
Nine of the ASX's 11 sectors were higher at midday and energy and consumer staples were lower, by 0.9 and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
All of the Big Four banks were higher, with ANZ adding 0.2 per cent, ANZ and NAB climbing 0.3 per cent and Westpac edging 0.1 per cent higher.
In the mining sector, goldminers were doing well as the precious metal changed hands for a record $US2,346 an ounce - up from $2,180 a month ago.
Newmont had advanced 6.7 per cent Evolution had added 1.5 per cent and Northern Star had advanced 2.1 per cent.
Elsewhere in the sector, Fortescue was up 1.2 per cent, BHP had dropped 0.4 per cent and Rio Tinto was 0.7 per cent higher.
The tech sector was the biggest gainer, up 1.2 per cent. Life360 had soared 17.2 per cent to an all-time high of $14.23 after the family tracking company announced that its customer growth numbers were "materially ahead of what we understand to be market expectations for CY24 Q1".
On the flip side, Elders had plunged 24.7 per cent to a three-month low of $7.40 after the agribusiness said that first-half trading had been significantly below expectations, in part due to the El Nino weather conditions.
Beach Energy had dropped 14.9 per cent to $1.6125 after the Kerry Stokes-backed oil and gas producer said it had identified new quality issues at its Waitsia gas plant in Western Australia that would delay the project by months while adding hundreds of millions to its cost.
"It is extremely disappointing to be continually encountering quality and execution issues given the late stage of the project," managing director and chief executive Brett Woods said.
APM Human Services had dropped 28.8 per cent to a three-week low of $1.16 after shares in the job-training provider resumed trading following CVC Asia Pacific withdrawing its non-binding takeover offer last week.
The company said it had since received a different takeoever offer from Madison Dearborn Partners but chairman Nev Power called MDP's tentative price of $1.40 per share disappointing.
Back in tech, Qoria had soared 30.2 per cent to 41c after the digital safety and student wellbeing solution provider rejected a non-binding takeover offer from US-based private investment firm K1 at 40 cents per share.
The Australian dollar was buying 65.87 US cents, from 65.70 US cents at Friday's close.
