US STOCKS-Wall St set to rise on hopes of vaccine-fueled recovery

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* Oil, bank stocks rise on recovery hopes
* U.S. vaccine developers rise after Astra approval
* Futures up: Dow 0.17%, S&P 0.24%, Nasdaq 0.45%

(Adds comment; updates share prices)
By Devik Jain and Supriya R
Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to rise on Wednesday
as investors hoped that COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and a bigger
fiscal aid would help the world's largest economy recover from a
pandemic-fueled slump in the next year.
Boosting sentiment, Britain approved the emergency use of
AstraZeneca AZN.L and Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine,
which will start being administered on Monday, beginning with
those most at risk. Meanwhile, the chances of a bigger stimulus check dimmed on
Tuesday after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a
quick vote to back President Donald Trump's call to increase
COVID-19 relief checks.
The move resulted in Wall Street's three main indexes
slipping from intraday record highs in the previous session.
"The market is of the view that U.S. households will receive
additional support a few months down the line even if the
government decides to pull back higher stimulus checks," said
Piotr Matys, FX strategist at Rabobank.
At 09:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 51 points, or
0.17%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 9 points, or 0.24%, and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 57.75 points, or 0.45%.
Meanwhile, the first known U.S. case of a highly infectious
coronavirus variant discovered in Britain was detected in
Colorado.
Scientists believe the new variant is more contagious than
previously identified strains of the SAR-CoV-2 variant but no
more severe in the symptoms it causes. "The bigger question is if the vaccine effective against the
new strain or not. If the answer is yes, the recovery rally
continues and if it is no, that's a serious issue," said Dennis
Dick, a trader at Bright Trading LLC.
To date, the pandemic has infected more than 19 million
people and killed over 334,000 in the United States.
However, trillions in dollar of stimulus and progress in
developing vaccines helped the benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX ,
bounce back nearly 70% from its late-March trough.
The index is on course to end the month with a 3% gain after
a 10.8% rally in November.
Technology mega-caps such as Apple Inc AAPL.O and
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O powered much of this year's gains, but
have taken a backseat in recent weeks as investors shifted to
economically sensitive sectors on cheaper valuations and hopes
of an eventual recovery.
Oil stocks rose in premarket trading with ConocoPhillips
COP.N up 1.1%, while banking shares also edged higher.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese e-commerce firm JD.Com Inc
JD.O added 1.6% after its board authorized the company to
explore feasibility of potential unit spin-off. Covid-19 vaccine developers like Inovio Pharmaceuticals
INO.O , Pfizer Inc PFE.N , BioNTech SE BNTX.O and Johnson &
Johnson JNJ.N and Moderna Inc MRNA.O gained between 0.9% and
2.4% after UK approved AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot.
Trading is expected to remain light in the holiday-shortened
week, which could boost volatility in the market.