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Luke Kawa2/20/25

Alibaba booms after e-commerce and AI-enhanced cloud business results impress

Alibaba delivered an across-the-board beat on its quarterly report for the final three months of 2024 as the Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant seemingly goes from strength to strength.

The headline figures exceeded expectations, with adjusted earnings per share of 21.39 yuan handedly besting the consensus estimate of 19.12 on revenues of 280.15 billion yuan (forecast: 277.4 billion).

Shares jumped double digits in early trading, firmly pulling away from the $120 level that had marked a short-term peak for the stock over the past three years.

The highlights included:

A core business that did better than anticipated, with domestic e-commerce sales of 136.1 billion yuan that blew away the consensus estimate of 131.7 billion.
A higher-margin cloud business with better-than-projected and accelerating revenue growth. Drilling down, AI-related sales in particular delivered triple-digit growth, year on year.

“Looking ahead, revenue growth at Cloud Intelligence Group driven by AI will continue to accelerate,” Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said. “We will continue to execute against our strategic priorities in e-commerce and cloud computing, including further investment to drive long-term growth.”

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Claire Yubin Oh3h

Globalstar surges after FT reports that Amazon is in talks to buy the satellite group

Globalstar is up 11% in premarket trading on Thursday on reports that Amazon is in talks to buy the satellite company, in a push to take on Elon Musk's SpaceX. The two companies are currently negotiating the details of a potential deal after lengthy talks, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Amazon has ambitions to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide satellite-based internet access anywhere on the planet — a market which is dominated by Starlink at the moment and is a key pillar of the eye-watering $1 trillion valuation that SpaceX is seeking in its IPO, which it has just confidentially filed for.

Indeed, Amazon has been signing deals with airlines and doubling down on investing on its internet constellation lately, with plans to increase its ~200 satellites in orbit to about 700 by the middle of 2026 — still a fraction compared to SpaceX’s mega constellation with has some 10,000 active satellites.

But Amazon’s not the only big tech giant with an interest in Globalstar. Back in 2024, Apple invested $1.5 billion for a 20% stake in the company, necessitating a negotiation between Apple and Amazon for the latest deal talks to proceed, per the FT. SpaceX also reportedly had early talks with Globalstar, per Bloomberg last October.

Globalstar's stock has been up ~230% in the past year, pushing its value to some $8.8 billion as of yesterday’s close.

Amazon in talks to buy $9bn satellite group Globalstar in bid to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink

Amazon in talks to buy $9bn satellite group Globalstar in bid to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink

Amazon has ambitions to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide satellite-based internet access anywhere on the planet — a market which is dominated by Starlink at the moment and is a key pillar of the eye-watering $1 trillion valuation that SpaceX is seeking in its IPO, which it has just confidentially filed for.

Indeed, Amazon has been signing deals with airlines and doubling down on investing on its internet constellation lately, with plans to increase its ~200 satellites in orbit to about 700 by the middle of 2026 — still a fraction compared to SpaceX’s mega constellation with has some 10,000 active satellites.

But Amazon’s not the only big tech giant with an interest in Globalstar. Back in 2024, Apple invested $1.5 billion for a 20% stake in the company, necessitating a negotiation between Apple and Amazon for the latest deal talks to proceed, per the FT. SpaceX also reportedly had early talks with Globalstar, per Bloomberg last October.

Globalstar's stock has been up ~230% in the past year, pushing its value to some $8.8 billion as of yesterday’s close.

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J. Edward Moreno3h

FDA clarifies stricter stance on GLP-1 compounding: Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration reiterated its increasingly strict stance on compounded versions of GLP-1s, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The FDA said that, outside of drug shortages, “routine production” of copycat drugs is not allowed. Producing the compounded versions could now “prompt enforcement action,” Reuters reported.

Hims & Hers, which has historically been one of the largest sellers of copycat GLP-1s, fell more than 4% on Wednesday and slipped further in premarket trading on Thursday.

Hims attracted FDA scrutiny in February when it launched a copy of Novo Nordisk’s new GLP-1 pill. At the time, the FDA said it would take “decisive steps” to restrict GLP-1 compounding in a statement that specifically called out Hims.

After a bitter spat with Novo, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, Hims entered a pact with the drugmaker in which it agreed not to market compounded GLP-1s.

US FDA clarifies policies on compounding of GLP-1 medicines

Hims & Hers, which has historically been one of the largest sellers of copycat GLP-1s, fell more than 4% on Wednesday and slipped further in premarket trading on Thursday.

Hims attracted FDA scrutiny in February when it launched a copy of Novo Nordisk’s new GLP-1 pill. At the time, the FDA said it would take “decisive steps” to restrict GLP-1 compounding in a statement that specifically called out Hims.

After a bitter spat with Novo, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, Hims entered a pact with the drugmaker in which it agreed not to market compounded GLP-1s.

Oil spikes, equity stocks slump as President Trump commits to hitting Iran “extremely hard” over the next 2 to 3 weeks

The ongoing war threatens to bring about an even more pronounced disruption to energy supplies, with negative ramifications for economic activity and financial markets.

President Trump Addresses The Nation On The Conflict In Iran

Tasha Matsumoto

Stocks continue to climb on hopes of an end to the war

Stocks rallied and oil fell as traders digested comments from President Trump.

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Matt Phillips19h

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