US STOCKS-Wall Street set for record closing highs on stimulus euphoria, vaccine progress

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* Tesla invests $1.5 bln in bitcoin; crypto stocks jump
* Disney, Cisco, GM climb ahead of results this week
* Indexes up: Dow 0.42%, S&P 0.33%, Nasdaq 0.5%

(Updates to late afternoon, changes dateline, byline)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Wall Street advanced on Monday,
setting a course for record closing highs as stimulus prospects
and ongoing vaccine deployment boosted investor optimism over
the pace of economic recovery from the pandemic recession.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were higher, with the S&P
500 and the Dow on track for their sixth consecutive gains,
their longest winning streak since August. Small-caps, often
seen as "re-opening plays," outperformed their larger peers.
"The market is looking forward six months to a year and
believing we're going to be largely past the coronavirus issue
and the economy will be reopened," said Robert Pavlik, senior
portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut.
"That gives people conviction and reason to buy the market.
"The fear of not participating is having some folks throw in
the towel despite worries that the market is overvalued and
overbought," he added.
Oil prices rose to their highest in over a year due to
supply cuts and hopes for a stimulus-driven demand rebound,
helping energy stocks jump 4.2%. O/R
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said if Congress approves
the president's $1.9 trillion fiscal aid package, the United
States could return to full employment next year. That package came closer to passage on Friday when lawmakers
approved a budget outline that would enable them to muscle it
through Congress without Republican support. Vaccine deployment pushes ahead in United States with at
least 32,780,860 doses administered so far, and new infections
trending lower, on average.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 132.2 points,
or 0.42%, to 31,280.44, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 13.29 points,
or 0.34%, to 3,900.12 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
69.19 points, or 0.5%, to 13,925.49.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, six were green, with
energy stocks enjoying the largest percentage gain.
Fourth-quarter reporting season has passed the halfway mark,
with 294 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of
those, 83% have beaten consensus estimates, according to
Refinitiv.
Analysts see aggregate fourth-quarter S&P earnings posting a
year-on-year gain of 2.4%, a stark reversal from the 10.3%
annual decline seen at the beginning of the year, per Refinitiv.
Walt Disney Co DIS.N , Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O and
General Motors Co GM.N were up between 1.5% and 4.3% ahead of
their earnings reports this week.
Bitcoin BTC=BTSP touched a record high after Tesla Inc
TSLA.O announced it had invested around $1.5 billion in the
cryptocurrency and would begin accepting payment in bitcoin for
its cars and other products. "The average institutional investor is shaking their head,"
Pavlik said. "For these folks who are believers in crypto
currency, it gives them another layer of support that crypto is
the future."
Tesla shares inched up 0.6%, while cryptocurrency miners
Riot Blockchain RIOT.O and Marathon Patent Group MARA.O
surged 33.0% and 35.1%, respectively.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.80-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.06-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 423 new highs and 6 new lows.