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

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* Oil, material stocks rise on recovery hopes
* U.S. vaccine developers mixed after Astra approval
* Wall Street indexes trading below all-time highs
* Indexes up: Dow 0.39%, S&P 0.36%, Nasdaq 0.35%

(Updates to open)
By Devik Jain and Supriya R
Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, led by
energy and material stocks, as investors bet on a strong
economic recovery in 2021 on the back of COVID-19 vaccine
rollouts and hopes of bigger fiscal support.
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.
Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose in early
trading, with energy .SPNY , materials .SPLRCM and industrial
.SPLRCI , which are expected to benefit the most from an
economic rebound, gaining the most.
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, but
investors hoped that a deal will get done eventually.
"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 09:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 115.80 points, or 0.39% , to 30,451.42, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 13.47 points, or 0.36 %, to 3,740.51 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 45.05 points, or 0.35 %, to 12,894.02.
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. To date, the pandemic has infected more than 19 million
people and killed over 334,000 in the United States.
"The bigger question is if the vaccine is 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.
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 stocks .SPLRCT , which have powered much of this
year's gains, were up marginally.
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 were mixed after
approval of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot.
Trading is expected to remain light in the holiday-shortened
week, which could boost volatility in the market.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3-to-1 ratio on
the NYSE and by a 2.7-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and no new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded 132 new highs and 20 new lows.