0450 GMT - Ampol's bull at Jefferies is confident that the Australian fuel refiner will maintain discipline if they encounter acquisition opportunities. Analyst Michael Simotas tells clients in a note that Ampol's management has a strong track record of extracting shareholder value. He points to its 2022 acquisition of New Zealand's Z Energy as an example. Simotas estimates Ampol will receive A$45 million cash proceeds from the divestment of its loss-making retail electricity businesses, one of which sat within Z Energy. Jefferies lifts its target price by 3.3% to A$31.00 and keeps a buy rating on the stock. Shares are up 1.4% at A$26.13. ([email protected])

0447 GMT - Ampol's bull at Barrenjoey sees the sale of its loss-making retail electricity businesses further improving the investment thesis for the Australian fuel refiner and retailer. Analyst Dale Koenders writes in a note that the divestment provides an incremental uplift of about A$30 million to annual Ebitda. He expects about A$10 million in transaction costs and redundancies to be recognized as a significant item in Ampol's accounts. Barrenjoey raises its target price by 2.9% to A$35.00 and maintains an overweight rating on the stock. Shares are up 1.2% at A$26.07. ([email protected])

0414 GMT - Real-estate settlement provider Pexa continues to offer material medium-term upside from its U.K. operation, according to its bull at UBS. Analyst Kieren Chidgey tells clients in a note that Pexa's current share price suggests that the market is attributing only negligible value to its U.K. unit. However, he points out that slower remortgaging activity there is only a short-term headwind. Sales and purchase volumes are growing and broader momentum looks positive, he adds. UBS keeps a buy rating on the stock and trims its target price by 2.9% to A$15.30. Shares are up 0.9% at A$11.78. ([email protected])

0345 GMT - Australian property advertiser REA Group keeps its bull at Bell Potter, as analyst Michael Ardrey expects house prices to benefit from lower consumer borrowing costs. Keeping a buy rating on the stock, Ardrey tells clients in a note that he expects REA to lift yield by 16% across fiscal 2025, with another double-digit rise the following year amid depth-product momentum and a favorable house-price backdrop. Bell Potter rolls forward its valuation to the first quarter of fiscal 2027, capturing the impact of expected Reserve Bank cuts to the cash rate. Target price rises 1.1% to A$267.00. Shares are up 1.1% at A$244.05. REA is controlled by News Corp, which owns Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. ([email protected])

0143 GMT - It's too early to tell what the ramifications may be for Australia-based CSL from Trump's executive order on drug pricing, which aims to lower prices for U.S. consumers, research analysts at Barrenjoey say. It's possible that CSL's key product, immunoglobulin, will be exempt from the program entirely. It's also unclear how the U.S. will determine drug pricing targets; it could be the average price in OECD countries, or simply the lowest price. Barrenjoey notes that U.S. immunoglobulin pricing is on average 15%-20% higher than elsewhere. Barrenjoey is staying bullish on CSL for now. ([email protected])

2325 GMT - Among Australian stocks, resources companies and those in cyclical businesses with high U.S. exposure are likely to be the biggest near-term beneficiaries of the U.S.-China tariff pause, Macquarie says. "De-escalation in the U.S.-China trade war is near-term positive for the ASX," the bank says. "While the impact on the overall market may be relatively muted, the news is likely to drive a rotation in the near term." A U.S.-China deal would stoke near-term industrial activity, benefiting resources. A stronger USD is a headwind for commodity prices, but Macquarie thinks it would be offset by positive sentiment toward China. Among cyclicals, it names Reliance Worldwide, Computershare, Lovisa and Flight Centre among potential beneficiaries. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

2308 GMT - Life360's tweaks to its outlook improve the quality of its guidance in the view of its bull at RBC. Analyst Wei-Weng Chen tells clients in a note that the 2025 guidance now features more revenue from subscriptions and less revenue from one-off hardware sales. Overall, Chen sees the March-quarter result as a strong one, pointing out that revenue and Ebitda were both ahead of average analyst forecasts. RBC has an outperform rating and A$26.00 target price on Life360's Australia-listed stock, which is at A$23.85 ahead of the open. ([email protected])

2305 GMT - Uranium miner Boss Energy may need to start contracting late this year, reckons Ord Minnett. Boss's Honeymoon operation has only 3.5 million lb of U308 production under contract. Analyst Matthew Hope assumes Boss's contracted sales in FY 2026 will absorb 500,000 lb. He thinks Boss will also agree to some shortdated deals to offset its production costs through FY 2026 as it raises output to 1.6 million lbs. "However, once Honeymoon makes the final push to hit nameplate production of 2.5 million lb in FY 2027 it will need a greater proportion of longer term contracts to provide assurance of sales," Ord Minnett says. So, it will need to agree to these offtake deals well ahead of FY 2027, which would be a positive catalyst for Boss's stock, the bank says. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

2300 GMT - Macquarie finds Super Retail's profit margins are falling short of expectations as competitive pressure builds across its brands. Super Retail's gross margin appears to have fallen some 190 basis points to 44.2% in 2H so far, prompting Macquarie to cut its forecast for the six-month period to 44.3%, from 46.0%. That has a knock-on effect on the bank's earnings forecasts. Its EPS projections drop by 4.0% in FY 2025 and by 9.3% in FY 2026. "We remain cautious given the ongoing competitive pressure, risk of new entrants and gross margin deterioration," says Macquarie, which has a neutral call on Super Retail's stock. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)

2254 GMT - While news of a trade deal between the U.S. and China has lifted markets, uncertainty remains the order of the day for the global economy, says Jim Chalmers, Australian Treasurer. "There's still a lot of uncertainty, there's still a lot of volatility in the global economy that we all have to deal with," he said in television interview. "We're very pleased to see some of these tensions de-escalate over the course of the last day or two. But these negotiations are probably got a little way to run yet," he adds. ([email protected]; @JamesGlynnWSJ)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires