AT&T is divesting its interest in DirecTV
The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.5%, adding 277 points in the afternoon on Monday, following President Joe Biden’s announcement to withdraw from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 experienced modest gains, increasing by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
The betting platform Polymarket identifies Harris as the favored Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, predicts she will become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia targets the Chinese market
Nvidia’s shares rose 4% in the afternoon after Reuters revealed that the company is customizing its new Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market. Nvidia will collaborate with the local distribution partner, Inspur, to introduce and market the chip, provisionally named the “B20,” in China. According to a source, the B20 is projected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not commented on the report.
Tesla stock rises ahead of earnings report
Tesla shares increased by nearly 5% a day before its quarterly earnings announcement, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss updates regarding the delayed robotaxi launch. Musk stated on social media that Tesla aims to produce useful humanoid robots for internal use by the next year, with broader production for external companies planned for 2026.
Crowdstrike faces lingering issues post-outage
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech outage last week, continues to deal with the repercussions. The company reported progress in restoring services, as many of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are coming back online. However, CrowdStrike’s stock saw a decline of over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading at around $263.
Verizon’s shares fall sharply after earnings report
Verizon’s stock dropped nearly 6% in the afternoon following its quarterly earnings report, which indicated that the company fell short of revenue expectations. The telecommunications firm reported a second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the analysts’ average estimate of $33.06 billion. Its earnings per share (EPS) was $1.15, aligning with expectations. The decline is attributed to customers retaining their older phones for longer, negatively impacting upgrade rates associated with promotional plans.