On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s announcement of his withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 also saw gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
The crypto betting platform Polymarket has placed its support behind Harris as the Democratic nominee, while New Zealand-based PredictIt forecasts that she is likely to become the 47th president of the United States.
In market news, Nvidia shares increased by 4% after reports indicated the company is developing a new version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local partner Inspur to launch the chip, expected to be named the “B20,” with shipments anticipated to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments on this development.
Tesla’s stock experienced a nearly 5% surge ahead of its upcoming earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss the latest updates on the company’s delayed robotaxi initiative. Musk stated on social media that Tesla aims to produce useful humanoid robots for internal use next year, with hopes of ramping up production for other companies by 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike continues to deal with the aftermath of a significant global tech outage attributed to the company. They reported that out of approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices, many are now back online and operational. However, CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon’s stock dropped nearly 6% after the release of its quarterly earnings report, which revealed that the company missed revenue expectations as customers retain their old phones for longer periods, impacting upgrade rates. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ projections of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share (EPS) matched expectations at $1.15.