Medicare patients are set to save $1.5 billion on ten prescription drugs.
In financial markets, the Nasdaq Composite climbed by 1.5%, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon, following President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. During the same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 saw increases of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
The crypto betting platform Polymarket has backed Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt, based in New Zealand, anticipates she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In corporate news, shares of Nvidia surged by 4% in the afternoon after reports indicated the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia is reportedly partnering with local distributor Inspur to launch the chip, provisionally named the “B20,” with plans for shipping to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not provided any comments on this matter.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock jumped nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to update investors on the company’s long-awaited robotaxi. Musk stated on social media that Tesla plans to have functional humanoid robots in limited production for internal use by next year and aims for broader production for other clients by 2026.
In cybersecurity, CrowdStrike continues to manage the aftermath of a major global tech outage linked to its services that occurred last Friday. The company reported that many of the 8.5 million Windows devices affected are progressively becoming operational again. Despite this, CrowdStrike’s stock dropped over 13% on Monday afternoon, trading around $263.
Finally, Verizon experienced a nearly 6% decline in its share price following the release of its quarterly earnings report. The telecommunications giant fell short of revenue expectations, as many customers are delaying upgrades to their phones. Verizon reported second-quarter revenues of $32.8 billion, which was slightly below analysts’ predictions of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share aligning with estimates at $1.15.