Wednesday’s early trade: Energy, material stocks push indexes up

NEW YORK: US 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 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, materials and industrial, which are expected to benefit the most from an economic rebound, gaining the most.

At 09:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 115.80 points, or 0.39%, to 30,451.42, the S&P 500 gained 13.47 points, or 0.36 %, to 3,740.51 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 45.05 points, or 0.35 %, to 12,894.02.—Reuters