US stocks higher as volatility falls, dollar rises

ANKARA

US stocks opened higher on Wednesday as volatility declined but the dollar was on the rise.

The Dow jumped 242 points to 32,666 at 9.40 a.m. EDT (1340GMT) with Intel soaring 6.2% to a record $67.44 per share.

The American chipmaker announced it is planning to invest $20 billion in two new facilities in the US as the world experiences a shortage of chips, from automotive to electronics sectors due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P 500 added 22 to 3,933 and Nasdaq was up 17 to 13,247 but GameStop plummeted 18%.

Tesla's was down 0.3% to $660 despite CEO Elon Musk saying earlier that the electric carmaker has started accepting Bitcoin as payment.

"You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin ... Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside the US later this year," Musk wrote on Twitter. "Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly. Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”

The announcement pushed the cryptocurrency up 3%, which was trading above $57,000 -- just short of its all-time high of $60,000.

With the VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, down 2.2% to below the 20 mark once again, investors' risk appetite has increased to look into virtual coins, some of which were up by as much as 10% during the opening bell.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes, on the other hand, was up 0.4% to 1.645%.

The dollar, which is indexed to a basket of six currencies including the euro, Japanese yen and the British pound sterling, was also up.

The dollar index was at $92.55, gaining 0.2%.