Microsoft is shifting responsibility for the recent global IT outage back to Delta, as Nasdaq experienced a 1.5% increase, climbing 277 points on Monday afternoon. This rise followed 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 made gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, has backed Harris as the leading Democratic candidate for president, while New Zealand-based PredictIt forecasts her becoming the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia saw its shares rise by 4% in the afternoon after reports emerged that the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips targeted for the Chinese market. Nvidia is planning to collaborate with local partner Inspur to launch and sell the chip, tentatively named the “B20,” expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. The company opted not to comment on the matter.
Tesla’s stock jumped nearly 5% just a day before its earnings report. CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to share updates on the company’s delayed robotaxi launch. Musk stated on X that Tesla aims to produce genuinely functional humanoid robots for internal use by next year and potentially for external sales in 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm involved in the significant global tech outage on Friday, continued to deal with the aftermath. The company reported that a substantial number of the roughly 8.5 million affected Windows devices are now back online. However, CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a notable decline of nearly 6% after releasing its quarterly earnings report, which showed the company missed revenue estimates. This shortfall is attributed to customers retaining their older phones longer, adversely affecting upgrade rates for telecom companies offering promotional plans. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue reached $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share (EPS) met projections at $1.15.