Alibaba shares got a boost last week from news founder Jack Ma is pleased with the company’s turnaround so far. That’s after co-founder and current Chair Joe Tsai told CNBC in late February he felt a lot more “confident” about Alibaba’s ability to still be a top e-commerce player. Ma stepped down as chairman in 2019 . Wall Street analysts expect business will grow, but last week several trimmed their price targets on the stock. Their shared concern is how much Alibaba is spending in the near term for future growth. JPMorgan lowered its earnings forecasts based on “Alibaba’s increasing commitment to investments in core operations: domestic/international ecommerce and cloud,” China Internet Analyst Alex Yao and a team said in a report on April 9. They cut their price target to $100 a share, down from $105 previously, while maintaining an overweight rating. The new price target is still about 33% above where Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares closed Thursday. The stock has tumbled over a rocky period of about 12 months in which the company shook up its management with a restructuring into six units aimed at spin-offs — “to unlock shareholder value.” One by one, the company has cancelled plans for the IPO of its cloud business, and then its logistics arm Cainiao . “The first thing we did was to acknowledge mistakes,” Tsai told Norges Bank Investment Management’s CEO Nicolai Tangen in an interview, according to a video published on April 3. The firm says it owns 2% of Alibaba. “We’ve acknowledged in the past we might have not focused on our [shopping app] user experience,” Tsai said. “The second thing is to reorganize our personnel, change the organizational structure that fits the strategy.” Eddie Wu became CEO of Alibaba in September, and is also acting head of the cloud business. He succeeded Trudy Dai as head of the Taobao and Tmall e-commerce business in December. Daniel Zhang, the former CEO of the company, abruptly left instead of staying on to lead cloud as originally planned. “Near term, BABA’s financial metrics should remain weak over the next few quarters, given its sustained user investment in Taobao Tmall and [Alibaba International Digital Commerce] investment,” UBS analyst Kenneth Fong and a team said in a report on April 9. “More meaningful upside is likely to be in 2H if macro recovery builds momentum and with more concrete financial results demonstrated from the new business strategy,” UBS said. They cut their price target by $1 to $105 a share and maintained their buy rating. Competition remains fierce across Alibaba’s major business lines. PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo app and ByteDance’s Douyin, the local version of TikTok, have emerged as two major competitors to Alibaba in e-commerce. The company had spearheaded the industry’s rapid growth in China with its Taobao and Tmall platforms. In the relatively new realm of generative artificial intelligence, ByteDance Doubao chatbot is more popular than Alibaba’s, according to Nomura, citing Questmobile data. Doubao had around 3.7 million users as of the end of March, more than twice that of Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen AI chatbot, the data showed. Baidu’s Ernie bot was in second place, with around 2.5 million daily active users. By average daily time spent, Doubao remains first at 8.4 minutes, but Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen is second at 7.7 minutes as of the end of March, according to the data. Alibaba is also integrating AI tools and models with its e-commerce and cloud businesses. However, in Tsai’s interview with Norges Bank Investment Management, the Alibaba executive said he estimated that China was about two years behind the U.S. in terms of AI development. AI monetization also got little to no mention in six analyst reports published last week on Alibaba. “We maintain our conservative view towards BABA as business transformation is likely to take time,” Morgan Stanley equity analyst Gary Yu and a team said in a note on April 10. They have a price target of $85, and, in contrast to the many buy ratings, rate the stock equal weight. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Walmart – The discount retailer reported better-than-expected earnings , but shares were slightly lower in the premarket. Walmart posted an adjusted profit of 61 cents per share, beating an LSEG estimate of 58 per share. Revenue of $165.61 billion was about in line with the consensus forecast of $165.84 billion. Dick’s Sporting Goods , Foot Locker – Shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods slid nearly 11% after the athletic apparel and goods company agreed to purchase smaller rival Foot Locker for $2.4 billion. Dick’s offered $24 per share of Foot Locker, which implies 86% upside to the stock’s price. Foot Locker shares popped roughly 83% on the news. UnitedHealth Group – The health insurer’s shares pulled back more than 6%. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that UnitedHealth is being investigated by the Department of Justice for possible Medicare fraud . Cisco Systems – The networking technology stock rose more than 2% after its latest quarterly results topped Wall Street’s expectations. Cisco earned 96 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $14.15 billion versus the consensus estimate of 92 cents per share and $14.08 billion in revenue. Cisco also issued upbeat guidance for the full year and announced that its finance chief, Scott Herren, will be retiring in July. Alibaba – U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant dropped nearly 4% after its results for the fiscal fourth quarter missed analyst estimates. Boot Barn – The Western retailer’s shares rallied 13% despite weaker-than-expected fiscal fourth-qurater earnings and a soft full-year revenue forecast. Boot Barn earned $1.22 per share on $454 million in revenue, while analysts forecasted profit of $1.24 per share and revenue of $458 million, per LSEG. Boot Barn said it would repurchase $200 million of its stock. CoreWeave – Shares of the artificial intelligence infrastructure company fell 4% after a widening loss in the first quarter . Revenue of $982 million was above the $853 million expected by analysts, according to LSEG. This was CoreWeave’s first report as a public company, and the stock is up more than 60% since its IPO. Apple – Shares of the iPhone maker shed about 1%. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he told CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the company to build its products in India . DXC Technology – The IT services stock plummeted more than 13% on the heels of disappointing guidance for the fiscal first quarter. The company said adjusted earnings are expected to come in between 55 cents and 65 cents per share. Analysts had penciled in 77 cents per share, LSEG said. DXC Technology’s full year guidance also missed expectations. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Fred Imbert and Pia Singh contributed reporting.
Yoni Assia, Co-Founder and CEO of eToro, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 2, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
In eToro‘s IPO filing, ahead of the company’s market debut on Wednesday, the stock trading platform spent over 1,500 words spelling out the potential risks of operating in Israel, home to corporate headquarters.
While the current military conflict between Israel and Hamas hasn’t “materially impacted” business, “the continuation of the war and any escalation or expansion of the war could have a negative impact on both global and regional conditions and may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations,” eToro wrote in a section of the filing titled “Risks related to our operations in Israel.”
The company, which lets users trade stocks, commodities and cryptocurrencies, was founded in 2007 by brothers Yoni and Ronen Assia and David Ring, and is based in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv.
In its prospectus, eToro referenced the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israel. In the year and a half since then, the two sides have mostly been at war in the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and much of the area has been made uninhabitable.
Tensions have also escalated with other designated militant groups in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
“It is possible that these hostilities will escalate in the future into a greater regional conflict, and that additional terrorist organizations and, possibly, countries, will actively join the hostilities,” eToro wrote, adding that the magnitude of the conflict is “difficult to predict.”
Yoni Assia, eToro’s CEO, told CNBC in an interview that the company’s business is global, with operations worldwide. Regarding the challenges of being in Israel, Yoni Assia said “everything is in the risk factors.”
“We do hope to see more peaceful times,” he said. “It’s better for everyone and for our employees from a business point of view.”
EToro, which competes with Robinhood, had its Nasdaq debut on Wednesday. The stock popped 29% a day after eToro priced shares above the expected range. At the close of trading, the company was valued at about $5.4 billion.
EToro’s IPO comes as several tech companies get set to test the public markets following an extended drought dating back to the soaring inflation of 2022.
After the attacks of Oct.7, thousands of Israelis were called up for extended active reserve duty that caused some disruption to the country’s flourishing tech community. Ongoing obligations could “impact our competitive position and cause our sales to decrease,” eToro wrote.
Israel has also faced some backlash for its military campaign in Gaza.
The eToro filing cited International Criminal Court warrants for the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, and calls for boycotts from activist groups as potential roadblocks for the business.
The country has also been hit with credit downgrades from Fitch, Moody’s and S&P Global that could harm eToro’s operations, the filing said.
Etoro said that intensified cyberattacks since 2023, and potential damages from armed attacks, could raise costs or incapacitate its workforce due to safety concerns.
The company also highlighted tax law differences between the U.S. and Israel and the location of its executives as a potential risk factor.
“It may be difficult to enforce a U.S. judgment against us, our officers and directors in Israel or the United States, or to assert U.S. securities laws claims in Israel or serve process on our officers and directors,” eToro wrote.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell talks to guests as he arrives to speak at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference held by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on May 15, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that longer-term interest rates are likely to be higher as the economy changes and policy is in flux.
In remarks that focused on the central bank’s policy framework review, last done in the summer of 2020, Powell noted that conditions have changed significantly over the past five years.
During the period, the Fed witnessed a period of surging inflation, pushing it to historically aggressive interest rate hikes. Powell said that even with longer-term inflation expectations largely in line with the Fed’s 2% target, the era of near-zero rates is not likely to return anytime soon.
“Higher real rates may also reflect the possibility that inflation could be more volatile going forward than in the inter-crisis period of the 2010s,” Powell said in prepared remarks for the Thomas Laubach Research Conference in Washington, D.C. “We may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks — a difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.”
The Fed held its benchmark borrowing rate near zero for seven years following the financial crisis in 2008. Since December 2024, the overnight lending rate has been in a range between 4.25%-4.5%, most recently trading at 4.33%.
The “supply shocks” remarks are similar to those Powell has delivered over the past several weeks cautioning that policy changes could put the Fed in a difficult balancing act between supporting employment and controlling inflation.
Though he did not mention President Donald Trump’s tariffs in his Thursday remarks, the central bank chief in recent days has noted the likelihood that tariffs will slow growth and boost inflation. However, the extent of either impact is difficult to gauge, particularly as Trump recently has backed off the more aggressive duties pending a 90-day negotiating window.
Nevertheless, the Fed has been reluctant to ease policy after cutting its benchmark rate by a full percentage point last year.
Looking back and forward
As for the ongoing framework review, the Fed will seed to develop a five-year plan for how it will guide decisions and the way the moves will be relayed to the public.
Powell said the process this time will look at a number of factors.
They include the way the Fed communicates its expectations for the future, while also entailing a look back at ways it can adjust the last review.
During the tumult of the summer of 2020, the Fed announced a “flexible average inflation target” approach that would allow inflation to run a little hotter than normal in the interest of providing full and inclusive employment. However, inflation targeting soon became a dead issue as prices soared in the wake of the Covid pandemic, forcing the Fed into a series of historically aggressive rate hikes.
The current review will look at how the Fed considers “shortfalls” in its inflation and employment goals.
Powell and his colleagues initially dismissed the 2021 inflation surge as “transitory” because of pandemic-specific factors. However, several Fed officials have said the 2020 framework adoption did not factor into their decision to hold rates near zero even as inflation was rising.
“In our discussions so far, participants have indicated that they thought it would be appropriate to reconsider the language around shortfalls,” he said. “And at our meeting last week, we had a similar take on average inflation targeting. We will ensure that our new consensus statement is robust to a wide range of economic environments and developments.”
Further addressing the idea of potential supply shocks and their policy impact, Powell said the review will focus on communication.
“While academics and market participants generally have viewed the [Fed’s] communications as effective, there is always room for improvement,” he said. “In periods with larger, more frequent, or more disparate shocks, effective communication requires that we convey the uncertainty that surrounds our understanding of the economy and the outlook. We will examine ways to improve along that dimension as we move forward.”
Powell did not give a specific date on when the review will be completed, only saying that he expects it in “coming months.” For the last review, Powell used his annual remarks at the Fed’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming retreat to outline the policy.