On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq climbed 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. During the same time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 saw increases of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, has projected Harris as the Democratic nominee, while New Zealand-based PredictIt anticipates that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In other market news, Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% after reports indicated the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to introduce the chip, reportedly named the “B20,” which is expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not issued any official comments regarding the development.
Tesla’s stock surged by nearly 5% just a day before its anticipated earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss the delays surrounding the robotaxi initiative. Musk mentioned on X that Tesla aims to produce useful humanoid robots for internal use next year, with hopes of high production for external companies by 2026.
In cybersecurity news, CrowdStrike is still dealing with the aftermath of a significant global tech outage that occurred last Friday. The company reported that of the 8.5 million Windows devices affected, a considerable number have resumed normal operations. However, CrowdStrike’s stock continued to decline, down over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Finally, Verizon experienced a notable drop of nearly 6% in the afternoon after releasing its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications giant fell short of revenue estimates as customers are delaying upgrades to their mobile devices, impacting upgrade rates for plans that include new phone offerings. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue amounted to $32.8 billion, just below the analysts’ prediction of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) at $1.15, meeting expectations.