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REFILE-US STOCKS-Wall Street rises on hopes of vaccine-fueled recovery

Published 12/31/2020, 02:21 AM
Updated 12/31/2020, 02:30 AM
© Reuters.
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(Corrects advisory to "adds comment; updates share prices")
* Oil, material and bank stocks rise
* Mastercard jumps on Stephens PT raise
* Wall Street indexes trading below all-time highs
* Indexes up: Dow 0.54%, S&P 0.32%, Nasdaq 0.32%

By Devik Jain and Supriya R
Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, led by
energy shares, as investors bet on a strong economic recovery in
2021 on the back of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and hopes of
bigger fiscal support.
The last few weeks of the year have seen a shift towards
undervalued stocks that are primed to benefit from an economic
rebound next year, with sectors such as banking, energy and
materials outpacing their peers.
Heavyweight technology shares, the most sought-after this
year, were sold off in the rush towards cyclicals.
Still, near-term expectations of bigger stimulus checks
dimmed after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a
quick vote to back President Donald Trump's call to increase
COVID-19 relief checks.
"We're having a little bit of hangover after Monday's
approval of the stimulus package," said Kim Forrest, chief
investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.
"It's muted somewhat because the $2,000 additional package
seems to be still out there but was killed for the moment by the
Senate."
Trading volumes were subdued and are expected to be low in
the final two days of the year, which has been a roller-coaster
ride for the equities.
The S&P 500 index .SPX is on the cusp of a nearly 16%
annual gain, after trillions of dollar in stimulus and progress
in developing vaccines helped the benchmark index bounce back
more than 70% from its late-March trough.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC , which was the first among
Wall Street's main indexes to turn positive for the year, is
also set for its best yearly performance since 2009, with
majority of gains led by FAANG stocks - Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Facebook Inc FB.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Netflix Inc
NFLX.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O .
At 12:21 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 164.52 points, or 0.54%, at 30,500.19, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 11.99 points, or 0.32%, at 3,739.03, and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 41.11 points, or 0.32%, at 12,891.34.
Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose, with energy
.SPNY , materials .SPLRCM and industrial .SPLRCI gaining
the most.
Boosting risk appetite globally, Britain approved the
emergency use of AstraZeneca AZN.L and Oxford University's
COVID-19 vaccine, which will start being administered on Monday.
Meanwhile, the first known U.S. case of a highly infectious
coronavirus variant discovered in Britain was detected in
Colorado. Shares of payments network processor Mastercard Inc MA.N
rose 2.5% after Stephens hiked its price target on the stock on
hopes of improving cross-border sentiment. U.S. travel-related stocks rose as stimulus aid and starting
of mass inoculations sparked hopes of a recovery for the
industry that has been among the hardest hit in pandemic-fueled
restrictions.
The S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR added 1.1%, while
cruise operators Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH.N ,
Carnival Corp CCL.N and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL.N
were up between 1.5% and 2.3%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.95-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 2.48-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 21 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 107 new highs and 23 new lows.

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