Live updates: All the latest news from ASX reporting season

JB Hi-Fi has named its pick to replace CEO Terry Smart, who will leave the electronics and white goods behemoth later this year.

Chief operating officer Nick Wells will take on the top job on October 3. He joined the company in 2009 and became an extecutive director in 2021.

Mr Wells was named COO late last year after serving a decade as chief financial officer and “had been heavily involved in the group’s operations, growth and the implementation of significant strategic initiatives”, the company said alongside the release of its full-year results.

“I am excited to take on the role of Group CEO having been part of this great business for the past 16 years,” Mr Wells said.

“In JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and e&s we have three of the most loved, respected and successful retail brands, overseen by an experienced and incredibly talented team.”

He will start on a fixed salary of $1.65m and can earn up to 203 per cent of his remuneration under the group’s incentive scheme.

Mr Smart said the decision to leave was a difficult one but he was proud of what he had achieved.

“I have worked very closely with Nick for many years, particularly since my re-appointment as Group CEO in 2021,” he said.

“Nick has a great knowledge of the group’s businesses and is highly respected by both our team members and stakeholders.

“With the support of the best retail management team in the market, I am sure that the group will continue to go from strength to strength under Nick’s leadership.”

The country’s second-biggest local oil and gas company, Santos, has won a Queensland court fight with contractor Fluor over the construction of the Gladstone LNG plant.

Santos told shareholders on Monday that Fluor would pay at least $692 million to Santos and the Gladstone venture partners following a Queensland Supreme Court ruling on Friday.

The Gladstone engineering and construction contract was signed in 2011 and work continued for three years.

“Santos argued that Fluor was not entitled to all the costs it had claimed and received payment for under the contract,” the company told investors.

“Santos sought to recover those amounts and also made claims to recover liquidated damages associated with the late completion of the project.”

The company said the final amount owed would be decided by the court within weeks.

Shares in the business were up 2.5 cents to $7.90 at the time of writing.

The S&P ASX200 has fallen back slightly after a quick start to the week, rising to almost 8850 points before pulling back to be up 0.2 per cent to 8828 at 11.20am AEST.

All sectors were in positive territoty, led by miners thanks to massive gains among lithium stocks.

Double-digit percentage gains were to be had by all of WA’s lithium miners in early trade, with Liontown Resources up 18 per cent, PLS 16 per cent, IGO 12 per cent and Mineral Resources 10 per cent.

The gains are linked to reports overnight that Chinese mining and battery manufacturing titan, CATL, closed its massive Jianxiawo mine amid the ongoing lithium price downturn.

Consumer discretionary stocks were up alomst 4 per cent and real estate jumped almost 3 pe rcent.

The only sector in the red was health stocks.

The company behind carsales.com.au has told investors to expect double-digit revenue growth across its North American, Asian and Latin American markets this financial year but says Australia will be more subdued.

Car Group today reported proforma revenue for the year to the end of June of $1.14 billion - up 12 per cent from a year earlier.

Profit was 10 per cent higher at $275 million, up from $250m a year ago.

The company delcared an improved final dividend of 41.5c a share.

“We have achieved excellent financial results in FY25 with double-digit growth across our three key financial metrics,” said managing director and CEO of CAR Group, Cameron McIntyre.

“This is a great outcome and reflects the strength of the business model, the execution of our strategy and resilience through macroeconomic cycles.’

Mr McIntyre said the Australian automotive market had remained resilient over the past year, with strong consumer activity on carsales.

“We’ve seen particularly strong performance in the used car market, while the new car segment has remained stable. Traffic and enquiry volumes continue to be healthy, despite ongoing cost-of-living and interest rate pressures, ”he said.

Car Group is tipping single-digit revenue growth in Australia this financial year.

Markets are almost certain the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut interest rates at its August meeting despite the board facing an increasingly uncertain environment.

Benign quarterly inflation figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in July should convince the board to cut the cash rate in a two-day meeting that starts on Monday, AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina said.

In fact, a cut of 25 basis points to 3.6 per cent should have happened already, Ms Mousina said.

Mortgage holders will be hoping lighting doesn’t strike twice after the central bank’s board voted in a 6-3 decision to leave rates on hold in July, despite markets pricing in a near-certain chance of a cut.

The majority of economists also expect a cut this time around, including 31 out of 34 experts surveyed by comparison website Finder.

But with markets predicting another two cuts following this one, RBA governor Michele Bullock is likely to try to pare back expectations in her post-meeting communications after the meeting wraps up on Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

The release of new products, continued strong demand for electronics and well-timed promotions pushed JB Hi-Fi to a profit of $462.4 million for the FY25 year - up 5.4 per cent from the previous financial year.

Sales across the group - which also owns JB Hi-Fi New Zealand, The Good Guys and home appliance and bathroom retailer e&s - hit $10.6b.

JB Hi-Fi Australia still makes up the lion’s share of sales, with a 7.5 per cent jump to $7.1b.

Releasing its results this morning, the electronics and white goods giant said the key growth categories were mobile phones, small appliances and computers.

The launch of Nintendo Switch 2 in the fourth quarter helped to lift sales of games hardware

Online sales is also becomng an increasingly more powerful revenue driver for JB Hi-Fi, increasing by 16.4 per cent to $1.19b - or 16.8 per cent of total sales - as shopper embrace the click-and-collect offering.

“It has been another strong year of sales and earnings, as we built on the momentum of the previous year,” group CEO Terry Smart said.

“The company stayed focused on its core proposition of driving great value and delivering consistently high levels of customer service which continued to resonate with our customers.”

JB Hi-Fi wil pay out a final dividend of $1.05 a share, fully franked, up 2c and bringing the total ordinary dividend to $2.75.

It will also pay out a special dividend of $1-a-share fully franked.

Amd in more good news for investors, the company said it will up its payout ratio from 65 per cent to a range of between 70 and 80 per cent of after-tax profits.

Oil major Santos has pushed out a period of exclusive talks with its takeover suitor until later this month.

The Adelaide-based company received the bid - priced at $US5.761 ($8.892) a share - in June from the XRG consortium, led by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Carlyle.

The proposal values Santos at about $36.4 billion.

Santos said XRG had now substantially completed its due diligence under the exclusivity deal.

“The XRG consortium has confirmed it has not discovered anything to date that would cause the XRG consortium to withdraw its indicative proposal and has confirmed its commitment to working constructively with Santos to complete the due diligence promptly and agree on a binding transaction,” Santos told the ASX in an update this morning.

“To complete due diligence and progress a binding transaction, the XRG consortium has requested a two-week extension to the due diligence and exclusivity period under the process deed.

“Santos notes that there is no certainty that the XRG consortium will enter into a binding scheme implementation agreement on terms acceptable to Santos or that the potential transaction will proceed.”

The talks wil run until August 22.

US stocks ended higher and the Nasdaq notched a record closing high for the second straight day on Friday as technology-related shares, including Apple, gained and as investors were optimistic about potential interest rate cuts.

The three major indexes also registered solid gains for the week.

Recent weaker economic data has underpinned expectations for rate cuts, while investors are evaluating Trump’s interim pick for a Federal Reserve governor.

The president late in Thursday’s session nominated Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran to a short-term board seat following Adriana Kugler’s abrupt exit last week, as he narrowed his shortlist to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends on May 15.

Read the full market report here.