The Nasdaq climbed 1.5%, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. During this time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 recorded increases of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
The crypto betting platform Polymarket has endorsed Harris as the potential Democratic nominee, while PredictIt, a platform based in New Zealand, forecasts that she may become the 47th president of the United States.
In another development, Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% in the afternoon. This surge followed reports that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market, in collaboration with local partner Inspur. The new chip, tentatively named “B20,” is anticipated to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has chosen not to comment on the matter.
Tesla’s stock also experienced a nearly 5% rise just a day before its earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss updates regarding the delayed robotaxi launch. Musk shared on social media that Tesla plans to have humanoid robots in limited production for internal use next year and aims for higher production for external companies by 2026.
On a less positive note, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for a major global tech outage last Friday, is still dealing with the aftermath days later, although recovery efforts are underway. The company reported that a significant number of the 8.5 million affected Windows devices are getting back online. Nevertheless, CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13% in afternoon trading, priced around $263.
Verizon faced a nearly 6% drop after announcing its quarterly earnings. The telecommunications giant reported revenues that fell short of expectations, attributed to customers retaining their older phones longer, which has negatively impacted upgrade rates for telecom services that include promotional offers tied to new mobile plans. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue stood at $32.8 billion, just below the projected $33.06 billion, while earnings per share matched expectations at $1.15.