New York: Major US stock indexes registered all-time closing highs this week amid optimism over U.S. fiscal stimulus, and bitcoin jumped after Tesla revealed it had purchased $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment.
The world’s most widely-held cryptocurrency, bitcoin touched a record high following the Tesla Inc disclosure, which was seen as significant since Tesla is 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 Riot Blockchain jumped 40.2% and Marathon Patent Group climbed 42.4%.
“Musk getting involved in Bitcoin, to those investing in Bitcoin, will be used as a way to tell others that this is a real asset, you can actually do something with it. They will support it as an argument of being the way of the future,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 closed up for a sixth straight session in its longest streak of consecutive higher daily closes since a seven-day run from Aug. 20 to Aug. 28 last year. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe also hit another record high.
