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* Futures up: Dow 0.43%, S&P 0.43%, Nasdaq 0.36%
By Devik Jain
Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures scaled all-time
highs on Tuesday as bets that fiscal aid will speed up a
vaccine-led recovery in the economy boosted sentiment in the
final days of the year.
At 06:34 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 rose 129 points or
0.43%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 gained 16 points or 0.43% and
Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 added 46.25 points or 0.36%.
Wall Street's main indexes ended at all-time highs on
Monday, with pandemic-battered stocks leading the gains after
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a long-awaited $2.3 trillion
fiscal bill, restoring unemployment benefits to millions of
Americans and averting a federal government shutdown.
Unprecedented monetary as well as fiscal stimulus and
positive vaccine data have helped the S&P 500 .SPX recover
from a virus-led crash in March.
The benchmark index is looking at its best fourth-quarter
performance since 2011 as investors returned to
economically-sensitive stocks from the so called 'stay-at-home'
plays on hopes of economic recovery.
The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives on Monday
approved a proposal to increase the COVID-19 payment checks to
$2,000 from $600, sending the measure for a vote in the
Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday, where it faces a much
tougher path for approval. Trading volumes is expected to remain light in a
historically strong final week for equities, with worries over
mutating coronavirus strain and upcoming U.S. Senate runoffs in
Georgia posing as short-term concerns.
Shares of planemaker Boeing Co BA.N added 0.6% in
pre-market trade as American Airlines AAL.O was set to restart
U.S. 737 MAX commercial flights on Tuesday morning.