WALL STREET SETS RECORD HIGHS, BETS ON U.S. STIMULUS

Wall Street’s main indexes scaled all-time highs on Monday, as investors bet on hopes that a fiscal relief package and a global vaccine roll-out would lead to a speedy economic recovery, Devik Jain and Medha Singh reported for Reuters.

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.

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 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.

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