US STOCKS-Wall St headed higher on recovery hopes after Thanksgiving holiday

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* Trump says will leave if Biden wins Electoral College vote
* Tech stocks lead premarket gains, banks dip
* Volatility dips to levels last seen in February
* U.S. stock market to close early; trading to remain thin
* Futures up: Dow 0.26%, S&P 0.34%, Nasdaq 0.67%

(Adds comments, details; updates prices)
By Shivani Kumaresan
Nov 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
open higher on Friday as optimism around an economic rebound
next year outweighed concerns around an expected surge in
coronavirus infections following the Thanksgiving holiday.
Sentiment was also lifted by President Donald Trump saying
he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for
President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding
the Nov. 3 election, market participants said. "While it was certainly the expectation of the vast majority
of traders that there would be an easy transfer of power, at the
end of the day it gives a little bit of confidence," said Rick
Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Jersey.
The three main U.S. stock indexes have gained more than 10%
this month as investors were encouraged by signs that COVID-19
vaccines were on track to be rolled out in the weeks ahead,
setting the S&P 500 .SPX for its best November ever.
Although European bourses were subdued by doubts around the
effectiveness of AstraZeneca's AZN.L vaccine, Meckler said it
would not affect the U.S. stock market with traders betting on
candidates being developed by Pfizer Inc PFE.N and Moderna Inc
MRNA.O . .EU
Reopening after the Thanksgiving holiday, Dow e-minis
1YMcv1 were up 0.26% by 8:55 a.m. ET. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1
were up 0.34% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 0.67%.
A rotation into sectors deemed to benefit from an economic
recovery, such as industrials .SPLRCI and financials .SPSY ,
has also powered the Dow .DJI to record highs and put it on
track for its biggest monthly gain since 1987.
Market volatility, as measured by the CBOE volatility index
.CBOE , also slipped to pre-pandemic levels on Friday.
But gains were capped by U.S. hospitalizations for COVID-19
reaching a record of more than 89,000 on Wednesday and experts
warning that holiday gatherings could lead to another spike in
cases and deaths. Stay-at-home stocks including Apple Inc AAPL.O and
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O rose about 1% in premarket trading,
while the big U.S. banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N and
Morgan Stanley Inc MS.N headed lower.
Trading volumes are expected to be light as the U.S. stock
market closes early on Friday.
U.S. listed shares of online entertainment services company
iQIYI Inc IQ.O fell 4.2% after Reuters reported Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd BABA.N and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) had put on hold
talks to buy a controlling stake in the video streaming service.
Next week, investors will get the latest economic snapshot,
including the monthly employment report. Economists polled by
Reuters expect the Dec. 4 jobs report to show unemployment
dipped to 6.8% from 6.9% but still well above the 4.5% rate in
March, before much of the U.S. economy went into lockdown.