The Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 1.5%, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race on Sunday and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. In the same session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3%, while the S&P 500 rose by 1.1%.
The crypto-based betting platform Polymarket has favored Harris as the leading Democratic nominee for president. Meanwhile, the New Zealand-based PredictIt forecasts that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In the tech sector, Nvidia’s shares surged by 4% on reports that the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips targeted at the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to launch the chip, tentatively named the “B20,” which is expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has opted not to comment on these developments.
Tesla experienced a nearly 5% increase in its stock price just one day before its earnings report is set to be released. CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to provide updates regarding the anticipated unveiling of the company’s robotaxi vehicle. Musk stated on social media that “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.”
In contrast, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm associated with last week’s widespread tech outage, is still facing challenges. The company reported that a majority of the approximately 8.5 million Windows devices affected by the incident are now back online. However, CrowdStrike’s stock was down over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a nearly 6% decrease in its stock following the release of its latest earnings report, which indicated that the company missed quarterly revenue expectations. Verizon attributed this decline to customers retaining their old phones for longer, which has adversely affected upgrade rates. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ projections of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) meeting expectations at $1.15.