Alibaba, JD.com, Temu Parent PDD Stocks Fall. Why Chinese Names Are Under Pressure.

Alibaba’s American depositary receipts are still up more than 70% this year. (David Becker/Getty Images)

Key Points

• Chinese tech stocks, including Alibaba, JD.com, and PDD, experienced declines of 1.3% to 3.2% in Monday trading.
• Chinese industrial companies’ profits fell 13.1% in November, an acceleration from a 5.5% decline in the previous month.
• China’s Ministry of Finance announced increased government spending to stimulate consumer demand, but investors remain cautious.

Alibaba and other Chinese names fell in Monday trading, trailing U.S. stocks even as the wider market exhibited a lackluster performance to start the final week of the year.

Investors may be considering economic weakness in China—and the extent to which the Chinese government will do something about it.

Alibaba’s American Depositary Receipts—or ADRs, essentially its U.S.-listed stock—fell 3.2%, with JD.com down 1.4% and Temu parent PDD also 1.3% lower. The S&P 500 was off 0.5% by comparison.

Monday was a poor start to the week for the market in Hong Kong, where Alibaba and many Chinese tech peers are listed, with the Hang Seng Index dropping 0.7%.

One factor pushing down Hong Kong stocks—and likely Alibaba, in particular—was continued worries about of China’s economy.

Chinese industrial companies experienced a profit decline of 13.1% in November, accelerating from a 5.5% fall in the prior month, according to economic data revealed over the weekend.

On Sunday, China’s Ministry of Finance announced that the government would increase spending to boost consumer demand—a promise of fiscal stimulus to come.

Alibaba, with a business primarily still in online retail despite its move into artificial intelligence (AI), is highly sensitive to fluctuations in China’s economy, and especially consumer sentiment.

Declines in Alibaba stock on Monday may indicate that investors do not see Chinese fiscal stimulus plans as being sufficient enough to offset the slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

More broadly, Alibaba’s ADRs have had a great year, gaining 75% to the highest levels since 2021 amid a surge on the back of AI optimism.