On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq composite index rose by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s announcement of his withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw moderate increases, adding 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In the political betting space, the platform Polymarket has designated Harris as the likely Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, suggests she may become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia’s stock experienced a 4% rise after reports indicated that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with the local firm Inspur to launch the chip, provisionally named the “B20,” which is anticipated to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia chose not to comment on the matter.
Tesla’s stock surged by nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, during which Elon Musk is expected to discuss the delay of the company’s robotaxi unveiling. Musk noted on social media that Tesla aims to have operational humanoid robots for internal use by next year, with wider production expected for other companies by 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm associated with a significant global tech outage last week, reported that many affected Windows devices are slowly returning to service. However, their stock plummeted over 13%, trading around $263.
Verizon’s stock fell nearly 6% following its quarterly earnings report, which revealed that the company did not meet revenue expectations. The decline in revenue is attributed to customers keeping their old phones longer, adversely affecting upgrade rates at telecom companies offering promotional plans. Verizon’s revenue for the second quarter was $32.8 billion, slightly below the average analyst estimate of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share matching expectations at $1.15.