Medicare patients may benefit from significant savings totaling $1.5 billion on ten specific prescription drugs.
In market updates, the Nasdaq experienced a rise of 1.5%, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon. This surge followed President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 also saw increases of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In political forecasts, the crypto-based betting platform Polymarket has favorably positioned Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt, a site from New Zealand, projects she could become the 47th president of the United States.
In technology news, Nvidia’s shares climbed nearly 4% after reports indicated the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. The chipmaker is collaborating with local partner Inspur to launch a product tentatively named the “B20,” which is expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not made any official comments regarding this development.
On the electric vehicle front, Tesla’s stock rose by almost 5% ahead of its upcoming earnings report. CEO Elon Musk hinted at future innovations within the company, indicating that Tesla plans to introduce functional humanoid robots for internal use next year, with broader production opportunities expected by 2026.
However, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike continues to face challenges in the aftermath of a significant global tech outage. As of late Sunday, they reported that many of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are gradually coming back online, though the company’s stock fell over 13%, trading around $263 on Monday.
Lastly, Verizon’s stock dropped nearly 6% following its quarterly earnings report, which revealed missed revenue targets. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ estimates of $33.06 billion, while earnings per share (EPS) met expectations at $1.15. The decline in revenue has been attributed to consumers keeping their devices for longer periods, affecting upgrade rates for telecom providers.