The Nasdaq climbed 1.5%, up 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw gains, adding 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In political betting, the crypto-based platform Polymarket supports Harris as the Democratic nominee, while PredictIt from New Zealand predicts she will become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% in the afternoon after reports indicated that the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia is expected to collaborate with local partner Inspur to launch the chip, known as the “B20,” with anticipations of shipping starting in the second quarter of 2025. The company has not commented on the reports.
Tesla’s stock surged nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to update investors about the delayed unveiling of the company’s robotaxi. Musk indicated on X that Tesla is on track to have usable humanoid robots in low production for internal use next year, with hopes for high production for other businesses by 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm involved in last week’s significant global tech outage, reported some recovery with many of the impacted 8.5 million Windows devices returning online. However, the company’s stock fell over 13% in the afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a decline of nearly 6% after it released its quarterly earnings report, which fell short of revenue expectations. The telecommunications company attributed the shortfall to customers retaining their old phones longer, affecting upgrade rates linked to promotional plans. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue was reported at $32.8 billion, slightly below the forecast of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share at $1.15, meeting predictions.