Alibaba (NYSE:BABA)
The first trading day of 2018 saw the major indexes climb considerably higher and clothes very strong and active trading getting the new year started. The strength was across many sectors of the market, and in particular of note were the Chinese related Stock names.
It appears that on Friday of last week, some regulatory changes were passed in China as well as a Chinese economic indicator(known as the (Caixin/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index) was found to be showing positive effects on their economy. Some of the other strong Chinese names were Autohome Inc Adr (NYSE:ATHM), Jd.Com Inc Adr (NASDAQ:JD),58Com Inc Adr (NYSE:WUBA) and YY(YY).
Shares of Baba gapped up strong as soon as the opening bell rang at 9:30 on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares stayed in a strong uptrend closing at $183.65 which was up $11.23 for up 6.51%.
The aftermarket was quiet and only saw the shares go up an additional $0.45. It’s difficult to say if these Chinese names would have rallied as much as they did if the overall us markets didn’t rally as much as they did.
It will be interesting to see as the week unfolds which areas of the market stay strong and which areas may fall prey to profit taking.
BABA Chart
The above price chart shows the daily action going back roughly 6 months in Alibaba. Note the shaded oval area, where on Monday shares gapped up at the open of trading and closed over the yellow dots which is the 50 period moving average. This is an area widely known and used by many longer-term investors and money managers.
One small setback for Alibaba came today when it was announced that a company that Alibaba founder Jack Ma owns ,was prevented from purchasing a US based money transfer company named MoneyGram International over National Security concerns.
It did not seem to affect the performance in Alibaba share price today but going forward if Alibaba faces similar hurdles it could possibly disrupt earnings growth.
Alibaba Profile
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as an online and mobile commerce company in the People’s Republic of China and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Core Commerce, Cloud Computing, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others.
It operates Taobao Marketplace, a mobile commerce destination; Tmall, a third-party platform for brands and retailers; Rural Taobao program that enables rural residents and businesses to sell agricultural products to urban consumers; Juhuasuan, a sales and marketing platform for flash sales; Alibaba.com, an online wholesale marketplace; Alitrip, an online travel booking platform; 1688.com, an online wholesale marketplace; and AliExpress, a consumer marketplace.
The company also provides pay-for-performance and display marketing services through its Alimama marketing technology platform; and Taobao Ad Network and Exchange, a real-time bidding online marketing exchange in China.
In addition, it offers cloud computing services, including elastic computing, database, storage and content delivery network, large scale computing, security, and management and application services, as well as big data analytics and a machine learning platform through its Alibaba Cloud Computing platform; Web hosting and domain name registration services; and payment and escrow services, as well as develops and operates mobile Web browsers.
The company provides its solutions primarily for businesses. Alibaba Group Holding Limited has strategic collaborations with Driscoll’s and Thai Union/Chicken of the Sea to launch their food products to China. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.