Australian shares have jumped on Monday, after posting their first weekly loss in four, as gains in mining and financial stocks overshadowed mixed signals from Wall Street in the previous session.

The ASX 200 was up 0.2 per cent to 7,491 by 11:53pm AEST. The benchmark closed 0.5 per cent higher on Friday

The Australian dollar was down at 74.41 US cents.

Mining stocks, which dropped over 1 per cent last week, climbed as much as 0.1 per cent to hit their highest in nearly a week.

Global miner BHP Group was down 0.3 per cent.

Among peers, Rio Tinto dropped 1 per cent and Fortescue Metals Group gave up 2 per cent.

Gold stocks climbed 2 per cent and hit a one-week high.

Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest listed gold miner, rose 1.7 per cent.

Separately, Australian miner Western Areas agreed to a revised takeover offer from nickel-lithium miner IGO.

Shares of IGO and Western Areas rose 3.9 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively.

Financials rose 0.6 per cent, lifted by gains in the "Big Four" banks.

NAB and ANZ advanced 1 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively, while CBA and Westpac added 1.2 per cent and 0.7 per cent.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that the country will conduct a general election on May 21.

BlueScope Steel jumped 0.8 per cent, set for its best day in one week after signing an agreement to acquire Cornerstone Building Brand's coil coatings business for $US500 million ($671 million).

Wall St mixed

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended lower in choppy trades as investors assessed the economic outlook with the Fed moving to fight inflation.

Last week's release of minutes from the Fed's March meeting showed "many" officials were prepared to raise rates in 50-basis-point increments in coming months.

The US dollar index advanced to 100 for the first time in nearly two years.

In Treasuries, the 10-year yield hit 2.73 per cent, its highest since March 2019, and the yield on 10-year inflation-protected securities went within 15 basis points of turning positive for the first time in over two years.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was up 5.2 basis points to 2.706 per cent while the two-year note yield was up 5.8 basis points at 2.520 per cent, leaving the 2/10 spread at 18.41 basis points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 137.55 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 34,721.12, the S&P 500 lost 11.93 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 4,488.28 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 186.30 points, or 1.34 per cent, to 13,711.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.31 per cent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.04 per cent.

French presidential election risk was also evident in bond markets as French borrowing costs rose while yields of other core European government bonds fell.

In the energy market, oil prices rose 2 per cent on Friday but registered their second straight weekly decline.

Member nations of the International Energy Agency (IEA) will release 60 million barrels over the next six months, with the United States matching that amount as part of its 180 million barrel release announced in March.

Brent crude futures were down 1.8 per cent, trading at $US100.95. a barrel, by 10:17am AEST.

ABC/Reuters