California’s newly implemented $20 minimum wage for fast food workers has not resulted in job losses, according to a recent study. The Nasdaq Composite index saw a 1.5% increase, adding 277 points on Monday afternoon. This surge followed President Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw gains, increasing by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, has released forecasts indicating support for Harris as the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, PredictIt, a New Zealand-based prediction market, suggests that she may become the 47th president of the United States.
In the tech sector, Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% after reports emerged that the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to launch the chip, tentatively named the “B20,” with shipments expected to begin in the second quarter of 2025. The company chose not to comment further on the matter.
Tesla’s stock experienced a nearly 5% rise a day before its expected earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is likely to provide an update on the rollout of the company’s robotaxi. Musk mentioned on social media platform X that Tesla aims to have low production of humanoid robots for internal use by next year, with hopes for higher production by 2026 for external clients.
Conversely, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for the recent global tech outage, continues to address the situation. The company noted that a substantial portion of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices has been restored to operational status. However, CrowdStrike’s stock dipped over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon’s stock fell nearly 6% following the release of its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications company reported revenues that came in below analysts’ estimates, as an increasing number of customers are opting to keep their existing phones longer, negatively impacting upgrade rates. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly under the expected $33.06 billion, and earnings per share of $1.15, which met expectations.