Jerome Powell’s forthcoming keynote speech at Jackson Hole on Friday has the potential to influence market trends significantly, and investors should be prepared for the impacts.
On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq Composite climbed by 1.5%, adding 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race and his subsequent endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. In the same session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.3%, while the S&P 500 increased by 1.1%.
The crypto forecasting platform Polymarket is positioning Harris as the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, and the New Zealand-based PredictIt project anticipates that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia stocks surged by 4% after a Reuters report indicated that the company is preparing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia is collaborating with local partner Inspur to launch and market the chip, which is expected to be named the “B20.” Reports suggest the B20 may begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025, although Nvidia did not provide a comment on the matter.
Tesla’s shares jumped nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss the company’s delayed introduction of its robotaxi. Musk announced on X that Tesla will potentially have a limited number of humanoid robots available for internal use by next year, with a broader production for other companies anticipated in 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike continues to deal with the repercussions of a major global tech outage that occurred last Friday. The cybersecurity firm reported that many of the 8.5 million Windows devices affected are gradually becoming operational again. However, CrowdStrike’s stock was down over 13% by Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon’s stock fell nearly 6% following the release of its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications giant reported revenues of $32.8 billion, falling short of the analysts’ average estimate of $33.06 billion. The company attributed this decline to customers prolonging their use of older phones, which has adversely affected upgrade rates for telecom firms offering promotional plans alongside new mobile lines. Verizon’s earnings per share were reported at $1.15, aligning with expectations.