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. However, trillions in dollar of stimulus and progress in developing vaccines helped the benchmark S&P 500 index, bounce back nearly 70% from its late-March trough. Covid-19 vaccine developers like Inovio Pharmaceuticals , Pfizer Inc, BioNTech SE and Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc were mixed after approval of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot. 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.

Source: Mint December 30, 2020 15:45 UTC