US STOCKS-Wall Street at record highs on stimulus bets

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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 0.58%, S&P 0.51%, Nasdaq 0.67%

(Updates to open)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Feb 8 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes scaled all-time
highs on Monday, as investors bets on hopes that a fiscal relief
package and a global vaccine roll-out would lead to a speedy
economic recovery.
Oil prices rose to their highest in more than a year,
lifting energy stocks .SPNY 2.2%, the most among major S&P
sectors. The defensive real estates .SPLRCR , utilities
.SPLRCU and consumer staples .SPLRCS underperformed. O/R
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.
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.
Sentiment was also boosted by 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. "We now have a situation where the Democrats do not need
republican approval in order to move ahead with the full $1.9
trillion stimulus package," said Thomas Hayes, managing member
at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
At 09:57 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 181.40 points, or 0.58%, to 31,329.64, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 19.88 points, or 0.51%, to 3,906.71 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 93.17 points, or 0.67%, to 13,949.47.
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.
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.
S&P 500 companies were now on track to post earnings growth
for the fourth quarter as opposed to a prior forecast of
decline, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.7-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE as well as the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 34 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 472 new highs and seven new lows.