The Nasdaq composite index experienced a 1.5% rise, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. In the same timeframe, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.3% and the S&P 500 rose by 1.1%.
In the political sphere, the crypto-based betting platform Polymarket positions Harris as the chosen Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt from New Zealand anticipates she will become the 47th president of the United States.
In the technology sector, Nvidia’s shares jumped by 4% following a report from Reuters indicating the company is creating a version of its new Blackwell AI chips for the Chinese market. Partnering with local distributor Inspur, Nvidia plans to launch the chip, provisionally named the “B20,” with shipments expected to commence in the second quarter of 2025. The company has not provided further comment.
Tesla’s stock surged nearly 5% just one day before its anticipated earnings report, during which CEO Elon Musk is expected to address the delay in the rollout of the company’s robotaxi. Musk mentioned on social media that Tesla aims to produce usable humanoid robots for internal use next year, with plans for wider production by 2026.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech outage last Friday, continued to feel the effects of the incident days later. However, the company reported that many of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices were returning to operation. As of Monday afternoon, CrowdStrike’s stock was down over 13%, trading around $263.
Verizon faced a sharp decline of nearly 6% after releasing its quarterly earnings report, which showed the company falling short of revenue expectations. The telecommunications firm attributed this to customers retaining their old phones for longer periods, adversely affecting upgrade rates tied to promotional plans for new mobile lines. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the average analyst estimate of $33.06 billion, with earnings per share holding steady at $1.15.