US STOCKS-Wall St cheered by vaccine roll-out, mega M&A activity

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* FedEx, UPS handling vaccine distribution, stocks rise
* Cruise ship, airline operators surge
* Alexion Pharma among top boosts on AstraZeneca offer
* Indexes up: Dow 0.81%, S&P 0.85%, Nasdaq 1.02%

(Updates to market open)
By Ambar Warrick and Shreyashi Sanyal
Dec 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on Monday
as travel stocks surged on the launch of a nationwide COVID-19
vaccine campaign, while Alexion Pharmaceuticals jumped on a $39
billion buyout offer from AstraZeneca in one of the year's
biggest deals.
Shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech PFE.N BNTX.O vaccine
fanned out to distribution points across the United States on
Sunday, with injections set to begin on Monday. The inoculations are seen as pivotal toward ultimately
halting the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than a
million lives around the world and brought economic activity to
a halt.
"There is no question the market is very optimistic about
the vaccines finally being delivered," said Thomas Hayes,
managing member at Great Hill Capital Llc in New York.
Cruise operators Carnival Corp CCL.N and Royal Caribbean
Cruises RCL.N rose 4.1% and 0.5%, respectively, while stocks
of major airline operators added between 0.7% and 3.1%, with
American Airlines Group AAL.O leading gains.
Travel and leisure stocks are the worst hit by restrictions
on movement due to the virus outbreak, and have reacted
positively to any vaccine-related news.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc ALXN.O was among the top
boosts to the S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC , surging
29.9% to a 4-1/2 year high after British drugmaker AstraZeneca
AZN.L AZN.O said it would buy the U.S. biotech firm.
AstraZeneca's U.S.-listed shares fell 6.7%. "It is a sign that animal spirits are back ... companies are
reluctant to do deals when they have a negative outlook on the
future, but the fact that you are seeing these types of big
deals on merger Mondays is a sign of things to come," Hayes
added.
At 9:54 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 242.50 points, or 0.81%, at 30,288.87, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 31.31 points, or 0.85%, at 3,694.77, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 126.03 points, or 1.02%, at 12,503.91.
Healthcare stocks .SPXHC were among the best performing
S&P 500 sectors on Monday.
U.S. stocks had rallied through the past few weeks, with the
S&P 500 touching a series of record highs as markets bet on the
swift approval and roll-out of a vaccine.
But uncertainty over more fiscal stimulus had stifled gains,
after the Senate last week approved a one-week extension of
federal funding to avoid a government shutdown and to provide
more time for negotiations on coronavirus relief and an
overarching spending bill. Shares of delivery firms FedEx Corp FDX.N and United
Parcel Service Inc UPS.N , which are leading the vaccine
distribution project, rose 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively.
Among other movers, ecommerce company Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd BABA.N shed 2.5% after China warned its internet majors of
more anti-trust scrutiny, slapped fines and announced probes
into deals involving Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd 0700.HK .
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 3.29-to-1 on the
NYSE and 3.00-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 20 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 152 new highs and five new lows.