Wall Street at record highs on stimulus bets

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 2.2%, the most among major S&P sectors. The defensive real estates, utilities and consumer staples underperformed.

The S&P 500 and the Dow rose for the sixth straight session, their longest streak of gains since August, also helped by upbeat quarterly earnings.

Walt Disney Co, Cisco Systems Inc and General Motors Co were up between 2.2% and 3.5% ahead of their earnings reports this week.

Sentiment was also boosted by US 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 rose 181.40 points, or 0.58%, to 31,329.64, the S&P 500 gained 19.88 points, or 0.51%, to 3,906.71 and the Nasdaq Composite 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 surged more than 10% to a record high after Tesla Inc 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 and Marathon Patent Group 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.