NEW YORK: The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit record highs on Tuesday as hopes that a Covid-19 vaccine will be available soon and better-than-expected factory data from China bolstered bets of a speedy economic recovery. Investors are closely following updates on a handful of vaccine candidates as well as the start of global shipments as drugmakers submit paperwork for regulatory approvals.

Pfizer Inc gained about 3.6% as the drugmaker and Germany's BioNTech SE sought emergency approval of their vaccine candidate from the European regulator. The partners are neck-and-neck with rival Moderna, which jumped 5% after announcing it would ask the regulator to recommend conditional approval for its shot.

At 11:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 307.30 points, or 1.04%, to 29,945.94, the S&P 500 gained 47.44 points, or 1.31 %, to 3,669.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 140.71 points, or 1.15 %, to 12,339.45. After the three main stock indexes gained more than 10% each in November, market participants said Wall Street's rally still has room to run in December, which is seasonally a good month for stocks.

Among stocks, Zoom Video Communications Inc tumbled 12% after the company warned its gross margins would remain under pressure going into 2021. Tesla Inc rose 2.3% after S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would add one of Wall Street's most valuable companies to the S&P 500 index all at once on Dec. 21.