Eli Lilly’s weight loss medication, Zepbound, has been shown to reduce the risk of heart failure. In financial markets, the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed by 1.5%, or 277 points, on Monday afternoon. This surge is attributed to President Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would withdraw from the presidential race, along with his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw gains, increasing by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In political betting, the platform Polymarket has endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, forecasts that she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In other market news, shares of Nvidia rose by 4% after Reuters reported that the company is working on a new version of its Blackwell AI chips aimed at the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to introduce the chip, tentatively named “B20,” which is expected to begin shipping by the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia did not comment further on the report.
Tesla’s stock jumped nearly 5% in anticipation of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is expected to discuss progress on the company’s delayed robotaxi project. Musk stated on social media that Tesla aims to produce functional humanoid robots in limited quantities for internal use next year, with broader production intended for other companies by 2026.
On the downside, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm responsible for the recent major tech outage, experienced a drop of over 13% on Monday, with shares trading around $263. The company confirmed that a significant number of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are now operational.
Verizon faced a nearly 6% decline in its stock price following its quarterly earnings report, which revealed that the company fell short of revenue expectations. The telecommunications giant reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the $33.06 billion projected by analysts, while earnings per share met expectations at $1.15.