The Nasdaq increased by 1.5%, adding 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election, and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 also experienced gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In the realm of political forecasts, the crypto-driven betting platform Polymarket is backing Harris as the Democratic nominee, while PredictIt from New Zealand is projecting that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In the technology sector, Nvidia’s stock rose by 4% after reports surfaced that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local partner Inspur to introduce the chip, tentatively named the “B20,” in China, with shipments expected to commence in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any official comments regarding the project.
Tesla’s shares climbed nearly 5% in anticipation of its upcoming earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to reveal details about the delayed introduction of the company’s robotaxi service. Musk indicated on social media that Tesla is planning to have useful humanoid robots in limited production for internal use next year, with hopes for broader availability by 2026.
CrowdStrike, which was at the center of a significant global tech outage last Friday, is slowly recovering, according to the company. Out of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices, many have been restored to operation. However, CrowdStrike’s stock continues to struggle, decreasing over 13% and trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a nearly 6% drop in its stock following the release of its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications giant fell short of revenue projections as more customers are opting to keep their old phones longer, which has adversely affected upgrade rates. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below analyst expectations of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share matched forecast at $1.15 per share.