On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq index increased by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 also saw gains, rising by 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Moreover, the betting platform Polymarket is backing 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 tech news, Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% after reports surfaced that the company is creating a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia plans to partner with local distributor Inspur to launch the chip, provisionally named the “B20,” in China, with shipments expected to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has not commented on the report.
Tesla’s stock jumped nearly 5% one day before its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to discuss the ongoing delays with the company’s robotaxi project. Musk indicated on social media that Tesla aims to have functioning humanoid robots for internal use next year, with hopes of higher production for other companies by 2026.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a significant global tech outage last Friday, is gradually recovering. The company reported that a large portion of the approximately 8.5 million affected Windows devices are back in operation, though CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13% in the afternoon, trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a nearly 6% decline in its stock after releasing its quarterly earnings report, which did not meet revenue expectations. The telecom company noted that an increasing number of customers are holding onto their older phones, impacting upgrade rates. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue reached $32.8 billion, just shy of analysts’ average estimate of $33.06 billion, while its earnings per share stood at $1.15, meeting expectations.