ASX 200 Live Today - Monday, 2nd June

Welcome to our live ASX coverage for Monday, June 2. We’re excited to be trialing this new format. Be sure to refresh manually for the latest updates — and let us know how we can make it even better.

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ASX 200 slips, US futures lower

[4:50 pm] Signing off – The S&P/ASX 200 finished slightly lower, down 20 pts or -0.24%. You can catch all of the sessions highlights in today's Evening Wrap.

US futures (S&P 500 -0.48% and Nasdaq -0.62%) are currently pointing towards a soft start to the month.

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Stocks moving on unusual volume

[3:15 pm] These are the S&P/ASX 200 and small-to-mid caps ($200m - $1bn) stocks experiencing unusual volume, as a % of their 20-day average volumes.

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Eagers Automotive to resume on-market buyback

[2:15 pm] Eagers Automotive has announced it will resume its on-market share buy-back program, targeting up to 10% of its issued capital (approximately 25.8 million shares) starting July 1, 2025. The company stated, “The buy-back reflects the Board’s prudent approach to capital management and underscores the strength of our balance sheet.” At last week’s AGM, Eagers provided a positive trading update, highlighting:

Last week, the company noted the following at its AGM:

Trading Update:

• Order intake significantly higher year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.

• The Retail Joint Venture and easyauto123 are achieving record trading levels.

FY25 Guidance:

• The company remains on track to meet its revenue growth target of over $1.0bn for 2025.

• Management anticipates a stronger second half, driven by favorable industry conditions, potential interest rate relief, and fewer disruptions compared to the first half.

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Eagers Automotive (APE)

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Aussie job ads eased slightly in May

[1:45 pm • ANZ] ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads fell 1.2% month-on-month in May, following a downward revised 0.3% month-on-month decline in April.

ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads is now at its lowest level since March 2021 but has remained in a tight range of 114 to 117 (rounded to the nearest 1 point) since mid-2024.

• "Although the ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads series has remained in a tight range of 114–117 over the last year, the May result is in the bottom of that range and marks the lowest level of job ads since March 2021," ANZ Economist, Aaron Luk said.

• "Other signals of labour demand are mixed. ANZ Job Ads per unemployed person has been gradually trending downwards since November last year (Figure 3). Employment rose 89,000 in April, but there has been volatility in the labour force survey data in recent months. Hours worked was flat in April and also declined in February and March."

• "The labour market still remains tight, with robust employment growth and a low unemployment rate. Given the overall resilience in the Australian economy, we maintain our expectation that the cash rate will be cut by 25 basis point in August and again in the first quarter of 2026."

Source: ANZ

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Commodities check-in

[1:05 pm] Commodities are trading broadly higher on Monday.

Oil prices ticked higher despite OPEC+ announcing another output increase. Goldman Sachs expects the cartel to deliver one last production increase of 410,000 barrels per day in August before keeping output steady from September onward. The investment bank expect WTI crude to average US$56 a barrel in 2025, and fall to US$52 in 2026.

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Resimac rallies on special dividend

[1:00 pm] Shares in non-bank lender Resimac rallied 13.5% after the company declared a fully franked special dividend of 12 cents per share. At the current share price of 96.5 cents, this translates to a yield of approximately 12.4%.

Despite a profit warning on February 18, which triggered a 12% selloff due to a "significant increase in collective provisioning, particularly within the asset finance business," the special dividend is clearly driving some yield-oriented investors into the stock.

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Lithium miners lower, Pilbara Minerals hits four year low

[12:05 pm] Lithium stocks are trading broadly lower, with the bellwether Pilbara Minerals down 6.3% to $1.16, the lowest since March 2021.

This is despite a small bounce in Chinese lithium carbonate prices on Monday, up 1.2% to 59,800 yuan a tonne. This still marks one of the lowest price levels in over four years.

Likewise, the Shanghai Metals Market reported a slight fall in spodumene prices, down 0.4% to US$625 a tonne.

Stocks leading to the downside include Patriot Battery Metals (-6.5%), Core Lithium (-6.5%) and Liontown Resources (-5.7%).

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Soul Patts and Brickworks surge on tie-up

[11:15 am] Shares in Soul Patts and Brickworks are up 11.5% and 20.2% respectively, after the two companies agreed to merge and create a newly capitalised ASX-listed company (TopCo).

To add some perspective, Brickworks shareholders were to receive an implied value of $30.28 per Brickworks share, representing a premium of 10.1% to its last close. The stock is now trading at $33.15.

This merger is reminiscent of the Chemist Warehouse and Sigma Healthcare tie-up, which saw Sigma shares surge as much as 44% between 1-3 October.

The logic here is that:

• Soul Patts raised $550m at nil discount, reflecting strong demand for the merger

• Cross-shareholding will be removed, (since SOL owns 43% of BKW and BKW owns 26% of SOL) creating a clean capital structure with a greater free float

• TopCo has an indicative market cap of $14bn. Could this push it into the ASX 100 and ASX 50 indices?

• The larger and more liquid TopCo is likely driving substantial index, ETF and institutional accumulation today

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Small caps making moves

[11:00 am] Here are the top small caps ($200m to $1bn market cap) winners and losers as we head towards noon.

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Top gainers and losers at open

[10:30 am] Here are the top S&P/ASX 200 gainers and losers in early trade.

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Tasmea to acquire Vertex Group

[9:55 am] Maintenance and engineering group Tasmea is acquiring infrastructure services company Vertex Group for upfront $9 million in cash and scrip. Here are the transaction highlights:

• An upfront consideration of $6.5m cash and $2.5m in Tasmea shares (714,000 escrowed shares at an issue price of $3.50 vs. $2.99 last close)

• Earn out payments of up to $2.75m payable for FY26, FY27 and FY28, subject to Vertex achieving EBIT targets

• Vertex earnings expected to exceed $2.5m EBIT pera nnum

• Acquisition to deliver approximately 3% accretion to EPS

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Tasmea (TEA)

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Temple & Webster launches on-market buyback

[9:45 am] Temple & Webster launched an on-market share buyback of up to 10% of issued capital, to run for 12 months from 20 June.

This is a rather interesting use of capital, given the stock is up 22% in the past month and up 67% year-to-date.

That said, TPW's 1H25 result reported 117% NPAT growth to $9.0 million or ~76% above market expectations and a cash balance of $139 million as at 31 December 2024, with no debt.

A recent trading update (7 May) also noted that "growth has accelerated over the half, with half-to-date revenue up 18%," for the period 1-Jan to 5-May.

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Temple & Webster (TPW)

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Broker upgrades, downgrades and target changes

[9:40 am] A few broker notes of interest:

• Fisher & Paykel upgraded to Neutral from Sell; target up to NZ$35.50 from NZ$32 (CITI)

• Fisher & Paykel upgraded to Overweight from Equal-weight; target up to $35.90 from $34 (MS)

• IkeGPD Group retained Buy; target up to $1.17 from $0.93 (BP)

• Integral Diagnostics retained Buy; target up to $3.65 from $3.59 (BP)

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Resimac declares special dividend

[9:30 am] Non-bank lender Resimac has declared a fully franked special dividend of 12 cents per share. This equates to a dividend yield of approximately 14.1% based on the stock's last closing price of 85 cents.

A strategic review identified surplus capital "deemed not essential for supporting the Group’s strategic objectives ... with the recent sale of surplus ASX listed financial assets considered non-core to Resimac’s strategic direction."

These non-core assets comprised less than 5% of the Group's 1H25 reported net assets.

The stock has somewhat struggled year-to-date, down 13%, largely driven by a weaker-than-expected 1H25 result. During the period, normalised net profit fell 12.2% to $15 million, reflecting a "significant increase in collective provisioning, particularly within the asset finance business."

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Resimac (RMC)

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Opthea flags board shuffle

[9:25 am] Four of Opthea's eight directors have decided to step down after the company's recent negative trail results, which have caused the share price to almost halve since its 6-Feb-25 peak of $1.15.

Directors Julia Haller, Susan Orr, Quinton Oswald and Anshul Thakral have all resigned, effective 2 June 2025.

On 31 March, Opthea's ShORe Phase 3 trial did not meet its primary endpoint. As a result, Opthea and DFA Investors agreed to terminate trials.

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Opthea (OPT)

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Perenti awarded $1.1bn gold services contract

[9:15 am] Diversified mining services company Perenti has signed a new five-year contract for the delivery of underground mining services at the Mana gold mine in Burkina Faso. Here are the key contract details:

• Contract value: Approx $1.1bn

• Contract term: 60 months from 1 June 2025

• Services: Underground development, production and related mining services

• Capital requirement: FY25 capital requirements included in guidance

Last month, Perenti announced a $1bn mining contract with AngloGold (60 month contract from 1-Feb-25, no new growth capital required) and a $500m contract with Agnew (36 months from 1-Jan-25, capital requirements included in guidance).

The company is racking up some pretty big contract wins, which could see some upgrades to consensus earnings expectations.

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Perenti (PRN)

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Cash Converters acquires 10 UK franchise stores

[9:10 am] Cash Converters is acquiring 10 UK-based franchise stores for $15.7 million, funded via a new Lloyds Back facility. The acquisition is earnings accretive and lifts the company's UK exposure to 58 corporate and 134 franchise owned stores.

More broadly speaking, Cash Converters has some interesting metrics including:

• Current market cap of $170m

• 1H25 result highlighted $192.1m revenue, $36.5m operating EBITDA and $57.3m cash

• FY24 result noted NTA of 28.4 cents per share (current share price of 27.5 cents)

• FY24 result paid out a 2 cent dividend (vs. EPS of 2.8 cents), yielding 8.3%

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Cash Converters (CCV)

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China's manufacturing PMI still in contraction

[9:00 am] Over the weekend, China reported mixed May manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs, reflecting cautious growth and persistent deflation.

Manufacturing PMI printed 49.5, up from 49 in April and in-line with consensus but marking a second month of contraction.

• Production rebounded to expansion, while new orders contracted more slowly, with exports showing easing declines.

• Employment and finished goods inventories remained in contraction, though employment edged up slightly.

• Input and output prices continued to decline, fueling deflation worries.

• Bright spots include high-tech manufacturing expanded for the fourth consecutive month, and consumer goods returned to growth.

Non-Manufacturing PMI slipped to 50.3, missing 50.6 consensus and slightly down from 50.4 in April.

• Construction growth slowed, while service sectors saw marginal improvement.

• Real estate and capital market services remained below 50, signaling contraction.

Composite Index up to 50.4 from 50.2, indicating a slight uptick in overall economic activity.

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Soul Patts and Brickworks agree to transformative merger

[8:55 am] Diversified investment house, Washington H. Soul Pattinson and diversified industrial group, Brickworks are set to merge, creating a newly capitalised ASX-listed company with an expected market cap of $14.2bn. Some of the key transaction details and benefits include:

• Proposed Merger expected to deliver value creation and growth opportunities for both sets of shareholders through significantly increased scale and a simplified company structure by removing the cross-shareholding

• Increased exposure for Soul Patts shareholders to Brickworks’ high-quality assets in Building Products and Property

• Increased exposure for Brickworks shareholders to Soul Patts’ diverse portfolio of assets spread across multiple investment strategies including private equity and credit opportunities

• Brickworks shareholders to receive an implied value of $30.28 per Brickworks share, a 10.1% premium to its last closing price

Source: ASX Announcement | Company page: Soul Patts (SOL)

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What's driving stocks?

[8:50 am] Major US benchmarks finished mostly lower, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 0.01% and 0.32% respectively.

• S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed on May 6.15% and 9.56% higher, respectively. This marks their best monthly performance since November 2023

• Positive corporate earnings from Dell (upgraded earnings guidance on AI sever demand), Costco (earnings beat, plans to absorb tariffs), Zscaler (earnings beat on zero-trust security platform adoption)

• Tariffs risks back in the spotlight amid stalling US-China trade talks and new trade restrictions, Trump to double tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50%

• US April core PCE up 0.1% MoM, in-line with market expectations, April person spending slowed to 0.2% MoM vs. 0.4% consensus

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Good morning!

[8:45 am] S&P/ASX 200 futures pointing towards a relatively quiet start, up 8 pts or 0.09%.

If you’re new to the blog – catch up quick via today’s Morning Wrap.