A recent study has revealed that California’s new $20 minimum wage for fast food workers has not resulted in job losses. On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq saw an increase of 1.5%, adding 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s announcement of his withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. During the same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.3%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.1%.
In the realm of political forecasts, the crypto-based betting platform Polymarket favors Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, whereas PredictIt, based in New Zealand, anticipates she will be the 47th president of the United States.
In corporate news, Nvidia’s stock rose by 4% after reports surfaced indicating that the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips targeting the Chinese market. Nvidia is expected to collaborate with a local distributor, Inspur, to introduce the chip, tentatively dubbed the “B20,” with shipments anticipated to commence in the second quarter of 2025.
Tesla’s stock experienced a nearly 5% increase one day prior to its earnings report, where Elon Musk is expected to provide insights regarding the postponed unveiling of the company’s robotaxi. Musk shared on X that Tesla plans to have functional humanoid robots ready for internal use next year, with wider production for other companies projected for 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for a major global tech outage last week, is still addressing the aftermath of the incident. The company reported that a significant number of the 8.5 million affected Windows devices are now back online, but its stock was trading down over 13% at approximately $263 on Monday afternoon.
Verizon’s stock fell nearly 6% after the release of its quarterly earnings report, which indicated a shortfall in revenue expectations. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly under the analysts’ average estimate of $33.06 billion, and an earnings per share of $1.15, aligning with expectations. The decline is attributed to customers holding onto their old phones longer, impacting upgrade rates linked to promotional plans.