* AstraZeneca vaccine news drives risk-on approach
* Vaccine could be released by mid-December
* Trump, government officials nod to formal Biden transition
* For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.
By Katanga Johnson and Julie Zhu
WASHINGTON/HONG KONG, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Stocks gained on Tuesday as the formal go-ahead for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to begin his transition added to an already brighter mood from progress made on COVID-19 vaccines and the prospects for a speedy global economic revival.
European markets appeared set to extend optimism in Asian and U.S. equities, with Euro Stoxx 50 futures STXEc1 and FTSE futures FFIc1 up 0.52% and 0.42%, respectively.
U.S. General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden on Monday that he can formally begin the hand-over process.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he had told his team "do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols", an indication he was moving toward a transition after weeks of legal challenges to the election results. stocks also got an added boost after reports that Biden plans to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, to become the next Treasury Secretary. Futures for the S&P 500 EScv1 rose 0.73% in afternoon Asian trade. upbeat backdrop helped MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS advance 0.19% in the afternoon trade. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 .AXJO was 1.26 percent stronger, touching its highest level in almost nine months, with energy stocks leading the pack. Nikkei .N225 jumped 2.47%, after reaching 26,186.53 by 0204 GMT, its highest since May 1991, with energy, real estate and financial shares leading the advance. Seoul's Kospi .KS11 was 0.54% higher while Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HIS was steady, up 0.03%. blue-chips .CSI300 were an outlier, edging down 0.85%, as investors booked profits following recent strong gains.
Some analysts say a Biden presidency, which could mean more negotiation room for Washington and Beijing, would not make a big difference for China's equities market, as they expected little change in broad U.S. policy toward China. progress made on COVID-19 vaccines, which had underpinned Wall Street overnight, helped keep risk appetite elevated as it boosted optimism about a quicker revival for the global economy.
AstraZeneca AZN.L said its COVID-19 vaccine, cheaper to make, easier to distribute and faster to scale-up than its rivals, could be as much as 90% effective. are still buying into vaccine news clearance, as the end of the pandemic becomes imaginable. Recent U.S. data restored a bit of confidence that the economy is holding up, despite surging COVID-19 infections and a painful lack of fresh fiscal stimulus," said Kyle Rodda, a market analyst for IG Australia.
"And the news of Yellen's possible nomination to the role of U.S. Treasury Secretary potentially puts a very Fed-friendly uber-dove at the reins of fiscal policy."
The dollar index =USD , which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, nudged down to 92.406 while the euro EUR= gained 0.11% on the day to $1.1853.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 1.12% overnight, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.56% while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added only 0.22%, underperforming as traders rotated away from big tech names.
Oil prices added to last week's gains as traders anticipated the vaccine news would spur a recovery in energy demand.
"Investors are ignoring near-term headwinds, chief among which are surging global COVID infections, and instead looking ahead to next summer," said PVM analyst Stephen Brennock.
The United States surpassed 255,000 deaths and 12 million infections since the pandemic began, with daily infections at a record near 170,000 and daily deaths around 1,500.
U.S. crude CLc1 advanced 1.28% to $43.61 per barrel and Brent LCOc1 was at $46.58, up 1.13% on Tuesday, while an index of commodity prices .TRCCRB touched its highest since early March.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose slightly to 0.8619%.
Spot gold XAU= fell to $1,826.86 an ounce while U.S. gold futures GCc1 dropped 0.46% to $1,829.30 an ounce.
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