On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq composite climbed by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also made gains, increasing by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In terms of predictions, the crypto betting platform Polymarket is backing Harris as the leading Democratic contender, while New Zealand’s PredictIt forecasts that she could become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia saw its shares rise by 4% after a report indicated that the company is developing a specific version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local partner Inspur to launch the chip, tentatively named “B20,” with shipments projected to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not yet commented on the report.
Tesla’s stock rose nearly 5% ahead of its upcoming earnings report, in which CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss the anticipated timeline for the launch of the company’s robotaxi service. Musk stated on social media that Tesla plans to have practical humanoid robots in low production for internal use next year, with hopes of scaling up production for other companies by 2026.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech outage on Friday, is experiencing ongoing challenges but reports that operations are gradually normalizing. The company noted that a considerable portion of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices have been restored. However, CrowdStrike shares fell over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
In contrast, Verizon’s stock dropped nearly 6% after the company released its quarterly earnings report, which revealed a revenue miss. The telecommunications provider reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations of $33.06 billion. Its earnings per share matched expectations at $1.15. The company attributed the revenue shortfall to customers keeping their phones longer, impacting upgrade rates.