Darden Restaurants’ stock experienced a notable increase following the announcement of a partnership with Uber for delivery services. In related news, the Nasdaq climbed 1.5%, gaining 277 points, as President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw modest gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
In the political realm, Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, supports Harris as the anticipated Democratic nominee for president, while PredictIt predicts she may become the 47th president of the United States.
Shares of Nvidia rose by 4% after reports revealed the company is working on a version of its new Blackwell AI chips tailored for the Chinese market. Nvidia is collaborating with local partner Inspur to develop the chip, tentatively called the “B20,” expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2025. The company has chosen not to comment on the matter.
Tesla’s stock saw a nearly 5% surge ahead of its upcoming earnings report, where Elon Musk is expected to discuss the much-anticipated robotaxi launch. Musk shared on social media that Tesla aims to have useful humanoid robots in limited production for internal use next year and to ramp up high production for external companies by 2026.
In contrast, CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm linked to a major global tech outage, continues to recover from the incident. The company reported that a significant number of the 8.5 million affected Windows devices are now operational. However, CrowdStrike’s stock was down over 13%, trading around $263 in the afternoon.
Lastly, Verizon’s stock plummeted nearly 6% following its quarterly earnings report, which showed a revenue miss as customers delay upgrades due to holding onto their old phones longer. Verizon’s second-quarter revenue reached $32.8 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations of $33.06 billion, while earnings per share were reported at $1.15, in line with forecasts.