A new study indicates that California’s recent implementation of a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers has not led to job losses in the sector.
In the financial markets, the Nasdaq rose by 1.5%, up 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw an increase of 0.3%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.1%.
Meanwhile, the crypto-based betting platform Polymarket has declared Harris as the Democratic nominee for the presidency, and PredictIt, based in New Zealand, forecasts that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In corporate news, Nvidia shares jumped by 4% after reports surfaced about the company’s plans to develop a new version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The initiative will involve collaboration with Chinese distributor Inspur, with the new chip, tentatively named “B20,” expected to start shipping by the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has refrained from commenting on the matter.
Tesla saw its stock rise nearly 5% a day before its earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to discuss the rollout of the company’s delayed robotaxi service. Musk stated on X that Tesla will have functional humanoid robots in low production for internal use next year, with hopes for higher production for external companies by 2026.
In contrast, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for Friday’s significant global tech outage, is still facing challenges as it works to restore services. The company reported that a substantial number of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are gradually coming back online. However, despite these recoveries, CrowdStrike’s stock fell by more than 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a nearly 6% drop in its stock after releasing its quarterly earnings report, which missed revenue estimates. The telecommunications giant attributed this shortfall to customers retaining their older phones for longer periods, adversely affecting upgrade rates associated with promotional plans. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly lower than the analysts’ consensus of $33.06 billion, while earnings per share matched expectations at $1.15.