US STOCKS-Wall St rises on vaccine cheer, upbeat business activity data

(Updates to open)
* Vaccine could reach first Americans by mid-December
* Surging coronavirus cases cap stock market gains
* U.S. business activity expands rapidly in November - data
* Indexes up: Dow 0.86%, S&P 0.53%, Nasdaq 0.09%

By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Shivani Kumaresan
Nov 23 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on Monday
as hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine and data showing a rapid
expansion in monthly business activity fueled bets of a quicker
economic recovery from a pandemic-driven recession.
Economically-sensitive sectors including industrials
.SPLRCI and energy .SPNY jumped more than 1.5% as investors
rotated out of the technology mega-caps that were perceived as
safe bets following a coronavirus-led crash earlier this year.
"November has been that month when we were finally convinced
that there is light at the end of the tunnel (and) today is
another one of those days," said Art Hogan, chief market
strategist at National Securities in New York.
"The market has moved higher with confidence that as we get
better at treating and preventing this virus, economic activity
will likely follow in the wake of that."
Data on Monday showed U.S. business activity in November
expanded at the fastest rate in more than five years, topping
even the most optimistic forecasts in a Reuters poll.
At 10:22 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 250.54 points, or 0.86%, at 29,514.02, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 18.96 points, or 0.53%, at 3,576.50, and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 11.06 points, or 0.09%, at 11,866.03.
Global equity markets had earlier received a boost as
AstraZeneca Plc AZN.L became the latest major drugmaker to say
its COVID-19 vaccine could be around 90% effective, although its
shares fell 3.8% as some traders perceived the efficacy data as
disappointing compared with rivals. MKTS/GLOB
"There's good news on the coronavirus vaccine and that's
building a lot of enthusiasm in a short trading week, but the
enthusiasm might be getting a little bit overdone," said Peter
Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities
in New York.
"It isn't like the vaccine is going to be distributed
tomorrow. It's going to take at least a month and so we are
still pretty far away before reality sets in."
Market participants also warned of higher volatility .VIX
in a trading week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov.
26.
Evidence of high efficacy rates in experimental vaccines had
lifted the S&P 500 .SPX to a record high earlier this month,
although gains have since been capped by new coronavirus-led
restrictions to contain a surge in infections. Meanwhile, hopes of more monetary stimulus were dampened
after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week pulled the
plug on some of the Federal Reserve's pandemic emergency lending
programs. In company news, shares of drugmaker Regeneron
Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN.O rose 0.5% after the FDA on Saturday
granted emergency use authorization to its COVID-19 antibody
therapy. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 3.67-to-1 on the NYSE
and 1.75-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 26 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 125 new highs and seven new lows.