SYDNEY - Futures tracking the S&P 500 and the Dow hovered near record highs on Thursday as hopes of a swift COVID-19 vaccine-driven recovery and economic stimulus eased immediate worries about rising coronavirus cases and high unemployment.

Nasdaq futures rose 0.2 percent as heavyweight Tesla Inc gained 4.5 percent premarket after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral” in the run-up to the electric-car maker’s addition to the S&P 500.

The Labor Department’s report showed initial claims for jobless benefits decreased to a seasonally adjusted 712,000 for the week ended Nov 28. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 775,000 applications for the latest week.

At 08:38 am EST, Dow E-minis were up 10 points, or 0.03 percent  and S&P 500 E-minis were down 1.5 points, or 0.04 percent .

Industrial conglomerate 3M Co’s shares gained 0.7 percent  as the company unveiled plans to cut about 2,900 jobs globally and scale back on investments in slower-growing markets as part of a restructuring.

Boeing Co added 1.7 percent  a day after its 737 MAX staged its first post-grounding flight with media on board.

The dollar index slipped to a fresh 2-1/2 year low of 90.948 on Thursday and was last at 90.976.

“Currency investors are taking on more risk following the latest vaccine breakthroughs, options show,” Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Hopes of a fiscal support package in the United States also boosted investor optimism.

But share traders were less enthused.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was unchanged while South Korea’s KOSPI and Australia’s benchmark index were about 0.4 percent higher each. Chinese shares opened a tad lower, with the blue-chip CSI300 index off 0.2 percent. New Zealand shares were weaker too.

That left MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan up 0.4 percent following two straight days of gains.

“Markets are quite likely to muddle through from here,” said Michael Frazis, portfolio manager at Frazis Capital Partners in Sydney.

“The vaccine is increasingly priced in. A couple of months ago, no one knew how deep coronavirus would be, or what the outcome of the election was. Now both sources of uncertainty have been removed.”

The euro fetched US$1.2118, having reached its loftiest level since late April 2018 in the previous day’s trade.

In commodities, oil prices slipped on Thursday as producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia locked horns over the need to extend record production cuts set in place in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brent crude was down 9 cents at US$48.16 a barrel while US light crude eased 14 cents to US$45.14

Gold was slightly firmer at US$1,832US$6 an ounce.

Ｗith Bloomberg inputs