Nasdaq experienced a rise of 1.5%, adding 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he is stepping down from the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 saw gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, has indicated Harris as the favored candidate for the Democratic nomination, while PredictIt, a platform based in New Zealand, forecasts her as the potential 47th president of the United States.
In other news, Nvidia’s shares increased by 4% after reports that the company is designing a version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia is expected to partner with Inspur, a local distributor, to launch the new chip, referred to as the “B20,” which is anticipated to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025, although Nvidia has not confirmed these details.
Tesla’s stock saw a nearly 5% boost ahead of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is likely to discuss the anticipated launch of the company’s robotaxi. Musk noted on X that Tesla aims to produce humanoid robots for internal use next year, with the hope of higher production for external clients by 2026.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech disruption, has reported slow recovery following the incident. The company noted that many of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are now operational, although CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13% and was trading around $263 on Monday afternoon.
Verizon faced a nearly 6% drop in stock value after releasing its quarterly financial results, which fell short of expected revenue due to customers retaining their older phones longer, adversely impacting upgrade rates. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, falling just short of the analysts’ average forecast of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share met expectations at $1.15.