Disney is currently in the process of finding a successor to Bob Iger, with a Morgan Stanley executive leading the search.
In the stock market, the Nasdaq experienced a notable rise of 1.5%, adding 277 points on Monday afternoon. This uptick followed President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the next presidential candidate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw gains, increasing by 0.3% and 1.1% respectively during the afternoon session.
In the realm of political predictions, the crypto-based betting platform Polymarket has favored Harris as the likely Democratic nominee, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, anticipates she may become the 47th president of the United States.
On the tech front, Nvidia’s stock rose by 4% after reports emerged that the company is developing Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia is expected to collaborate with local partner Inspur to launch the chip, tentatively named “B20,” in China, with shipments anticipated to commence in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has refrained from commenting on the matter.
Tesla’s stock surged almost 5% as it prepares to release its earnings report, during which Elon Musk is expected to address the company’s delayed robotaxi project. Musk stated that Tesla aims to produce humanoid robots for internal use next year and plans to ramp up production for other companies by 2026.
However, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm involved in last week’s significant global tech outage, is still facing challenges as it works to return affected systems to normal. The company reported that a notable number of the approximately 8.5 million impacted Windows devices are back online, but its stock fell over 13% to around $263 on Monday afternoon.
Verizon saw its stock drop nearly 6% following the release of its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications giant reported second-quarter revenues of $32.8 billion, slightly falling short of analysts’ expectations of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share remained steady at $1.15, aligning with projections. This decline is attributed to customers retaining old devices longer, adversely affecting upgrade rates for telecom companies.