US STOCKS-Wall Street at record highs on stimulus, vaccine optimism

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* Tesla invests $1.5 bln in bitcoin; crypto stocks jump
* Disney, Cisco climb ahead of results this week
* Indexes up: Dow 0.40%, S&P 0.31%, Nasdaq 0.43%

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Feb 8 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes scaled all-time
highs on Monday, as investors bet on hopes that a fiscal relief
package and vaccine roll-outs would lead to a speedy economic
recovery.
As oil prices rose to their highest in more than a year,
energy stocks gained .SPNY 2.2%, the most among major S&P
sectors. The defensive real estates .SPLRCR and utilities
.SPLRCU underperformed. O/R
Supporting the sentiment was U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet
Yellen's comment on Sunday that if Congress approves the $1.9
trillion plan, the country would get back to full employment
next year. The Congress on Friday approved a budget plan that would
allow a coronavirus relief bill to muscle through in the coming
weeks without Republican support.
The S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow .DJI rose for the sixth
straight session, their longest streak of gains since August,
also helped by upbeat quarterly earnings and ongoing vaccine
distributions.
"Most investors are willing to take increased risk compared
to normal," said Matt Hanna, portfolio manager at Summit Global
Investments.
"You have a confluence of events...nearly unlimited
expectations for stimulus combined with companies actually doing
fairly well and that's fueling major speculative behavior."
On the health front, the United States has administered at
least 32,780,860 doses of COVID vaccines so far with the daily
average of new infections moving lower.
Earnings season has crossed its halfway mark with more than
83% of S&P 500 firms beating estimates for quarterly profit,
according to IBES Refinitiv data. Analysts now expect firms to
post earnings growth for the fourth quarter as opposed to a
prior forecast of decline.
Walt Disney Co DIS.N , Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O and
General Motors Co GM.N were up between 2.2% and 3.5% ahead of
their earnings reports this week.
Bitcoin BTC=BTSP surged more than 10% to a record high
after Tesla Inc TSLA.O said it had invested around $1.5
billion in the cryptocurrency and would begin accepting payment
in bitcoins for its cars and other products. Tesla shares rose about 2%, while cryptocurrency miner Riot
Blockchain RIOT.O and Marathon Patent Group MARA.O surged
over 16% and 20%, respectively.
At 11:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 123.66 points, or 0.40%, to 31,271.90, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 12.22 points, or 0.31%, to 3,899.05 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 59.10 points, or 0.43%, to 13,915.40.
Progress in vaccination efforts and upbeat fourth-quarter
earnings have helped investors shrug off fears of a short-term
pullback in stocks due to lofty valuations and increasing
coronavirus infections.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3-to-1 ratio on
the NYSE and the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 620 new highs and 16 new lows.