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Markets Live: ASX opens higher on BHP, CBA

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Credit Suisse believes Nine Entertainment has won the free-to-air sports rights battle, citing its recent capture of the Australian Open tennis rights as a big positive for the company.

Upgrading its rating from "neutral" to "outperform", the broker said its relinquishing of the cricket coverage would allow to to make production savings.

"In our view, the switch from domestic cricket (which we estimate lost $50-60mn per year on a standalone basis) to Australian Open tennis is a more efficient allocation of programming resources," Credit Suisse said.

Nine will not have either the cricket or tennis broadcast during the 2019 financial year, but the broker said the outlook remained relatively fluid for the company as the company sought to reinvest the savings.

Credit Suisse has upgraded the company's target price from $2.35 to $2.60 as it expects earnings to increase from the reduced programming cost base.

Nine Entertainment shares are up 6.6 per cent to $2.59.

The Australian market has shot up at the open, advancing on strong performances from the big miners.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is up 40.2 points at 6090.4, a gain of 0.7 per cent.

BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank and Woolworths are weighing the market positively in early trade with Rio Tinto and South32 also doing well.

Super Retail Group is up 8.8 per cent while Nine Entertainment shares are up 5.8 per cent.

CSL, Qantas and Healthscope are the major drags on the market this morning.

Healthscope is down 2.8 per cent while Invocare has fallen 2.7 per cent.

Commonwealth Bank have pushed back their expectations of a rate rise from November of this year, to February 2019.

It said that while the macro backdrop indicates that the next move will be up, new uncertainties from falling dwelling prices, funding cost pressures and tightening lending standards were set to lengthen the cash rate holding at 1.5 per cent.

CBA has now delayed the timing of its next predicted rate rise to early 2019.

It said that it still held its cash rate peak at 2.5 per cent but said it didn't expect the RBA to move rates that high until 2020.

While the RBA has said its neutral cash rate would be 3.5 per cent, CBA believes the peak will fall well short of that.

Here are the overnight market highlights:

SPI futures up 10 points or 0.2% to 6056 at 6.40am AEST

AUD flat at 74.88 US cents

On Wall St, near 4pm: Dow -0.7%, S&P 500 -0.7%, Nasdaq -0.4%

In New York, BHP +1.4%, Rio +0.8%

In Europe: Stoxx 50 +0.5%, FTSE +0.3%, CAC +0.2%, DAX +1.5%

Spot gold +0.1% to $US1304.73 an ounce at 4.37pm New York time

Brent crude flat at $US73.11 a barrel

US oil +0.7% to $US67.73 a barrel

Iron ore +2.4% to $US66.98 a tonne

Dalian iron ore +2.4% to 479.50 yuan

LME aluminium +2.7% to $US2322 a tonne

LME copper +1.1% to $US6820 a tonne

10-year bond yield: US 2.97%, Germany 0.58%, Australia 2.79%, NZ 2.80%

SPONSORED POST:

The Australian sharemarket is set to open flat, with S&P/ASX 200 futures giving up most of their gains as the US sharemarket turned negative in the final hour of trading, writes John Kicklighter and Tyler Yell.

Wall Street assessed the Federal Reserve's signal that it's in no rush to raise rates even as inflation rises to its target, sparking inflation concerns.

The US central bank left interest rates unchanged, but kept the door open for a rate rise in June.

Read more of the 8@eight here.

Good morning and welcome to the Markets Live blog for Thursday.

Your editor today is William McInnes.

This blog is not intended as investment advice.

Fairfax Media with wires.