On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq Composite Index saw an increase of 1.5%, gaining 277 points. This surge followed President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would withdraw from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also experienced gains, rising by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In political prediction markets, the crypto-based betting platform Polymarket has endorsed Harris as the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, while PredictIt anticipates that she could become the 47th president of the United States.
In the stock market, Nvidia shares climbed 4% after a Reuters report indicated the company is working on a version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia is partnering with Inspur, a local distributor, to launch the chip, known as the “B20,” which is expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025. The company has not commented on these developments.
Tesla’s stock price jumped nearly 5% on the eve of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to announce updates regarding the company’s postponed robotaxi rollout. Musk stated on social media that Tesla plans to have functional humanoid robots for internal use by next year and aims for higher production for other companies by 2026.
In contrast, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for last week’s widespread tech outage, is still recovering from the incident. The company reported that many of the approximately 8.5 million impacted Windows devices are now operational again. However, CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13%, trading at around $263 in the afternoon.
Verizon faced a nearly 6% drop after releasing its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications giant fell short of revenue expectations, primarily because customers are keeping their phones longer, which negatively affects upgrade rates. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ average estimate of $33.06 billion, and earnings per share of $1.15, aligning with expectations.