On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.5%, gaining 277 points, in response to President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 saw increases of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In related political developments, the crypto betting platform Polymarket is currently backing Harris to be the Democratic presidential candidate, while PredictIt from New Zealand suggests she is favored to become the 47th president of the United States.
In the technology sector, shares of Nvidia rose by 4% following reports that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Partnering with local distributor Inspur, Nvidia plans to launch the chip, anticipated to be named the “B20,” with shipping expected to commence in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has chosen not to comment on these reports.
Tesla’s stock also performed well, surging nearly 5% ahead of its upcoming earnings report. CEO Elon Musk is expected to give updates regarding the company’s delayed robotaxi rollout. Musk mentioned on social media that Tesla plans to have operational humanoid robots for internal use by next year, with hopes for broader production by 2026.
However, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a recent major global tech outage, continued to face challenges as it worked to rectify the situation. The company reported that of around 8.5 million Windows devices affected by the outage, a considerable number have resumed normal operations. Despite this, CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading near $263.
Verizon experienced a nearly 6% drop in stock price following the release of its quarterly earnings, which fell short of revenue expectations. The telecom giant reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, just below the analysts’ average forecast of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share matching expectations at $1.15. Verizon’s performance reflects a trend of customers retaining their older phones longer, negatively impacting upgrade rates.