Chinese tech giant Alibaba reported a significant 239% year-over-year increase in net profit for the final quarter of 2024. This growth was driven by the expansion of its cloud business and a triple-digit rise in artificial intelligence over the past six quarters, alongside increased retail sales. CEO Eddie Wu highlighted these factors as key contributors to the company’s success. Separately, Amazon surpassed Walmart in quarterly revenue for the first time, with $187.8 billion compared to Walmart’s $180.5 billion, signaling Amazon’s growing influence across various economic sectors. Despite this, Walmart is still projected to lead in annual revenue generation globally.
U.S. markets experienced a downturn on Thursday, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.43%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 1.01%, and the Nasdaq Composite declining 0.47%. Conversely, Asia-Pacific stocks showed gains on Friday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising over 3.4% due to Alibaba’s share surge, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 adding around 0.2% amid continued consumer price growth.
Inflation in Japan remained high, with the January rate climbing to 4% year-on-year, the highest since January 2023. Core inflation, excluding fresh food prices, reached 3.2%, surpassing economists’ forecasts. This marks the 34th consecutive month that headline inflation has exceeded the Bank of Japan’s 2% target.
Alibaba’s shares surged 8.1% in the U.S. on Thursday and jumped as much as 12% in Hong Kong on Friday, following the announcement of a net income of 48.945 billion yuan ($6.72 billion) for the December quarter. The company’s Cloud Intelligence Group saw a 13% year-on-year sales growth. Additionally, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen increased his stake in Alibaba to approximately $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Private equity firm KKR has offered about £4 billion ($5 billion) for the struggling U.K. utility Thames Water. The company faces mounting debt and risks running out of cash by March 24. KKR’s proposal involves a management buyout without asset sales or a breakup of the utility.
— news from CNBC