The Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.5%, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not seek reelection and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also showed gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Crypto-based betting platform Polymarket favors Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, while New Zealand’s PredictIt predicts she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In other market news, Nvidia’s stock rose by 4% after reports emerged that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur for the launch and sale of the chip, referred to as the “B20,” which is expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025.
Tesla’s shares surged nearly 5% in anticipation of its upcoming earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss the company’s postponed robotaxi launch. Musk indicated on social media that the company aims to have operational humanoid robots for internal use by next year with broader production planned for 2026.
On the downside, shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike faced declines after a major global tech outage attributed to the company. However, CrowdStrike reported that many of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices were returning to normal operation. Despite this, its stock fell over 13% to around $263 on Monday afternoon.
Verizon’s stock dropped nearly 6% following its quarterly earnings report, which missed revenue expectations due to customers keeping their older phones longer. Verizon reported a second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the analyst estimate of $33.06 billion. Its earnings per share were aligned with forecasts at $1.15.