Alibaba's stock enjoys record rally to record close

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had their best day since going public 2 1/2 years ago, after the China-based e-commerce giant provided a sales outlook that was well above Wall Street projections. The stock shot up $16.70, or 13.3%, to a closing record of $142.34. The previous biggest one-day price gain was $6.48 on Aug. 12, 2016, while the previous one-day percentage gain was 8.9% on Feb. 16, 2016. Volume spiked to 80.9 million shares, about 7-times the full-day average, and the most since 97.9 million shares traded on Nov. 30, 2015. The stock made its debut on the NYSE on Sept. 19, 2014, after its IPO priced at $68. At Alibaba's investor day earlier Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu said fiscal 2018 revenue was expected to rise 45% to 49% above year-ago levels, while the FactSet consensus as of May 31 implied 36% growth. Alibaba's stock has soared 62% year to date, while U.S. rival Amazon.com Inc.'s stock has run up 38% and the S&P 500 has gained 8.7%.

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