On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq climbed 1.5%, gaining 277 points, 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 made gains, adding 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
The crypto-based betting platform Polymarket is backing Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, forecasts she could become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia experienced a 4% increase in its stock after reports emerged that the company is crafting a new version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local partner Inspur to introduce and distribute the chip, tentatively named the “B20,” with shipments expected to start in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia did not provide a comment on the matter.
Tesla’s stock surged nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to update investors on the long-awaited robotaxi release. Musk announced on X that Tesla plans to produce useful humanoid robots for internal use next year and aims for significant production for external companies by 2026.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a recent worldwide tech outage, reported that recovery efforts are progressing. The company stated that a considerable portion of the 8.5 million affected Windows devices is now back online. However, CrowdStrike’s stock saw a decline of over 13%, trading around $263 on Monday afternoon.
Verizon’s stock plummeted nearly 6% after it released its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications company fell short of its revenue targets due to customers retaining their old devices for longer, impacting upgrade rates for companies offering promotions on new phone lines. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue reached $32.8 billion, slightly under the analysts’ average expectation of $33.06 billion, while earnings per share (EPS) matched forecasts at $1.15.