At noon AEST on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index had recovered nearly all of Monday's modest losses, climbing 13.9 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 7,277.2.
The broader All Ordinaries was up 15.1 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 7,465.8.
In Washington, Republicans and Democrats remained at a stalemate on the debt ceiling, with just an estimated 10 days left before the US runs out of authority to pay its bills.
A White House meeting between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ended with no deal.
The energy sector was the biggest gainer at midday, up 0.6 per cent.
Woodside was up 0.6 per cent, Whitehaven Coal had risen 1.4 per cent and New Hope was up 3.4 per cent.
All of the Big Four banks were higher, by 0.3 to 0.6 per cent. Macquarie had risen by 1.5 per cent.
The heavyweight mining sector was down 0.1 per cent, with BHP dipping 0.2 per cent but Rio Tinto up 0.9 per cent.
Tech was the best performing sector at midday, up 1.3 per cent, but BrainChip was the biggest loser on the ASX falling 14.7 per cent to 43.5c as the AI chip company held its annual general meeting in Sydney
At that meeting, chairman Antonio Viana acknowledged to shareholders that the company, a messageboard-favourite, had yet to produce a product that could see its way into end production systems.
"The reality is that the market is still in the discovery and embryonic stage with respect to edge-based AI," he said.
Elsewhere in the sector, Wisetech Global was up 1.8 per cent, Technology One had added 3.5 per cent and Xero had climbed 1.6 per cent.
The Australian dollar was buying 66.49 US cents, from 66.35 US cents at Monday's ASX close.
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