On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, in response to President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 saw modest increases of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
The crypto-based betting platform Polymarket predicts Harris will be the Democratic nominee, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, forecasts that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia’s stock rose by 4% after reports emerged that the company is working on a version of its upcoming Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Partnering with local distributor Inspur, the chip, tentatively named the “B20,” is expected to start shipping by the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not commented on the report.
Tesla shares surged almost 5% ahead of its earnings report, in which CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to discuss the delayed unveiling of the company’s robotaxi project. Musk noted on social media that Tesla is aiming for low production of humanoid robots for internal use next year, with hopes for broader use by 2026.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech outage last Friday, is still recovering from the incident. The company reported that a substantial number of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are now operational again. However, its stock fell over 13% in afternoon trading, hovering around $263.
Verizon’s stock dropped nearly 6% following its latest quarterly earnings report, which fell short of revenue expectations. The telecommunications giant reported a second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the average analyst estimate of $33.06 billion, and an earnings per share figure of $1.15, matching expectations. The decline in upgrade rates stems from customers keeping their old phones for longer periods.