* Major U.S. stock indexes hit record closing highs
* Bitcoin touches record
* Oil prices rise to their highest in over a year(Updates with closing U.S. markets levels)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Major U.S. stock indexesregistered all-time closing highs on Monday amid optimism overU.S. fiscal stimulus, and bitcoin jumped after Tesla revealed ithad purchased $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency and would soonaccept it as a form of payment.
The world’s most widely-held cryptocurrency, bitcointouched a record high following the Tesla Incdisclosure, which was seen as significant since Teslais the fifth most-valuable U.S. company, and its CEO, Elon Musk,is among the world’s richest people.
Tesla shares were up 1.3%, while cryptocurrency miner RiotBlockchain jumped 40.2% and Marathon Patent Groupclimbed 42.4%.
“Musk getting involved in Bitcoin, to those investing inBitcoin, will be used as a way to tell others that this is areal asset, you can actually do something with it. They willsupport it as an argument of being the way of the future,” saidRobert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota WealthManagement.
The S&P 500 closed up for a sixth straight session in itslongest streak of consecutive higher daily closes since aseven-day run from Aug. 20 to Aug. 28 last year. MSCI’s gauge ofstocks across the globe also hit another record high.
Feeding the optimism were comments on Sunday by U.S.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said that if Congressapproves President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus reliefplan, the country would get back to full employment next year.
Congress on Friday approved a budget outline that wouldallow a stimulus bill to muscle through in the coming weekswithout Republican support.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 237.52 points,or 0.76%, to 31,385.76, the S&P 500 gained 28.76 points,or 0.74%, to 3,915.59 and the Nasdaq Composite added131.35 points, or 0.95%, to 13,987.64.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.30%, whileMSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained0.74%.
Oil prices rose 2% to their highest in over a year, withBrent nudging past $60 a barrel, boosted by supply cuts amongkey producers and hopes for U.S. economic stimulus.
Brent rose $1.22, or 2.1%, to settle at $60.56 abarrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose $1.12, or2%, to settle at $57.97 a barrel. Both benchmarks were at thehighest since January 2020.
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields held near 11-month highs asU.S. fiscal stimulus was seen boosting economic growth andspurring inflation.
Benchmark 10-year yields were last at 1.167%,after earlier reaching 1.200%, the highest since March.Thirty-year yields US30YT=RR were last 1.953%, after earlierrising above 2% for the first time since last February.
The dollar was flat to slightly lower.
The dollar index fell 0.035%, with the euro up0.05% to $1.2048.
Spot gold added 1.1% to $1,831.13 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Karen Brettell in New York, DevikJain, Shreyashi Sanyal and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Marc Jonesin London; and Swati Pandey in Sydney; Editing by Larry King,Dan Grebler, David Gregorio and Sonya Hepinstall)
