Zepbound, the weight loss drug from Eli Lilly, has been found to significantly reduce the risk of heart failure. Following this news, the Nasdaq saw a rise of 1.5%, gaining 277 points on Monday afternoon. This surge came after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.3%, while the S&P 500 went up by 1.1%.
In political betting markets, Polymarket, a crypto-based platform, has endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, and PredictIt from New Zealand predicts she will be the 47th president of the United States.
Nvidia’s shares rose by 4% after Reuters reported the company is developing a version of its new Blackwell AI chips specifically for China. This chip, tentatively named “B20,” will be sold in partnership with local distributor Inspur, with shipments expected to start in the second quarter of 2025. Nvidia has declined to comment on this report.
Tesla’s stock increased by nearly 5% ahead of its earnings report. CEO Elon Musk is expected to provide updates on the company’s delayed robotaxi project during the report. Musk mentioned that Tesla plans to have useful humanoid robots in low production for internal use next year, with hopes for high production for external customers by 2026.
CrowdStrike continued to face challenges following a major tech outage on Friday, but the situation was slowly improving. The cybersecurity company reported that a significant number of the 8.5 million impacted Windows devices are now back online. Despite these efforts, CrowdStrike’s stock was down over 13%, trading around $263.
Verizon experienced a steep decline of nearly 6% in the afternoon after missing quarterly revenue estimates. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $32.8 billion, slightly below the average analyst estimate of $33.06 billion. Earnings per share were $1.15, in line with expectations. Verizon attributed the revenue miss to customers holding on to their old phones longer, which impacted upgrade rates.