Disney is in the process of finding a successor to Bob Iger, with a Morgan Stanley executive at the helm of the search.
On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 recorded gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In the world of cryptocurrency, the betting platform Polymarket is backing Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, forecasts that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In other news, Nvidia shares rose by 4% as reports surfaced that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia is expected to collaborate with local distribution partner Inspur for the launch of the chip, provisionally named the “B20,” which is anticipated to ship by the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not commented on the report.
Tesla’s stock also saw a significant rise, increasing nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to provide updates on the anticipated robotaxi launch. Musk hinted on social media that Tesla aims to have functional humanoid robots in limited production for internal use by next year, with hopes for broader deployment by 2026.
However, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for last Friday’s major tech outage, continues to face challenges as it recovers from the incident. The company reported that a substantial number of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are back online, but CrowdStrike stocks fell over 13% to around $263 in afternoon trading.
Verizon experienced a decline of nearly 6% after announcing its quarterly earnings report, which revealed that the telecommunications giant fell short of revenue estimates. Customers are reportedly keeping their old phones longer, negatively impacting upgrade rates for Verizon and other telecom providers. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue reached $32.8 billion, falling slightly below analysts’ expectations of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share matched forecasts at $1.15 per share.