On Monday afternoon, the Nasdaq climbed by 1.5%, gaining 277 points, influenced by President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also saw gains of 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Polymarket, a crypto-based betting platform, is supporting Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, while the New Zealand platform PredictIt anticipates that she could become the 47th president of the United States.
In other news, Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% after reports indicated that the company is working on a version of its Blackwell AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. Nvidia is expected to collaborate with local distributor Inspur to launch the chip, apparently called the “B20,” with plans to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2025, although Nvidia has not commented on these developments.
Tesla’s stock experienced a boost of nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report, where CEO Elon Musk is anticipated to discuss the much-anticipated unveiling of the company’s robotaxi. Musk stated on X that Tesla plans to produce useful humanoid robots in limited quantities for internal use next year, with hopes for broader production by 2026.
In the cybersecurity sector, CrowdStrike, which faced significant challenges following last Friday’s global tech outage, reported that many of the approximately 8.5 million impacted Windows devices are gradually coming back online. However, CrowdStrike’s stock fell over 13%, trading around $263 by Monday afternoon.
Lastly, Verizon’s shares dropped nearly 6% after revealing its quarterly earnings. The telecommunications firm missed revenue expectations, attributed to a trend of customers holding onto their phones longer, impacting upgrade rates for promotional plans tied to new mobile devices. Verizon reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the $33.06 billion analysts had projected, while earnings per share matched expectations at $1.15.