On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq climbed by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
According to Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, Harris is favored to be the Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt from New Zealand forecasts that she could become the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% after reports indicated that the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The chipmaker is expected to collaborate with local distribution partner Inspur to launch the so-called “B20” chip, which is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided comments regarding this development.
Tesla’s stock experienced a nearly 5% increase a day before its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss the delayed unveiling of the company’s robotaxi. Musk stated on X that Tesla plans to have “genuinely useful humanoid robots” in limited production for internal use next year, aiming for higher production rates for outside companies by 2026.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech outage, reported that it is still managing the aftermath but is gradually returning to normal operations. The company noted that a large portion of the 8.5 million Windows devices affected is now back online. However, CrowdStrike’s stock dropped over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon faced a nearly 6% drop after the release of its quarterly earnings report, which showed that the company fell short of revenue estimates. The decline in customers upgrading their devices has negatively affected Telcom companies offering promotional plans. Verizon reported second-quarter revenues of $32.8 billion, slightly lower than the expected $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share (EPS) matched expectations at $1.15.