DOW HITS RECORD HIGH AS ALIBABA DEBUTS: Here’s What You Need To Know

MYLES UDLAND

 SEP. 20, 2014

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma (2nd L) poses as he arrives at the New York Stock Exchange for his company’s initial public offering (IPO) under the ticker “BABA” in New York September 19, 2014.

Stocks finished Friday mixed as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba made its debut in the largest IPO in US stock market history. After making new all-time highs on Thursday, the modest gains logged Friday by the Dow marked new all-time highs for the index.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 17,280.77, +14.8, (+0.1%)
• S&P 500: 2,010.46, -0.9, (-0.05%)
• Nasdaq: 4,579.79, -13.6, (-0.3%)

And now, the top stories on Friday:

1. The biggest story on Friday was the debut of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant that went public in the largest IPO in US stock market history. Shares of Alibaba priced at $68 on Thursday night, and after taking two hours to make a market Friday morning, the stock began trading at $92.70 on Friday morning. Alibaba shares quickly spiked to more than $99 per share, and after selling off a bit through the day, rallied late in the session to close at $93.89, up 38% from its IPO price. As of Friday’s closing price, Alibaba’s market cap was more than $231 billion.

2. Alibaba CEO Jack Ma appeared in an interview on CNBC at the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning, and China’s richest man told CNBC that one of his biggest inspirations is the movie Forrest Gump. Ma told CNBC’s David Faber that even though Gump is a fictional character, “I really like that guy. I’ve been watching that movie for about ten times. Every time I get frustrated, I watch the movie.”

3. Yahoo sold a bit more than $8 billion of its stake in Alibaba as part of the company’s IPO, and shares of Yahoo fell more than 2% on Friday. Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson took a closer look at some Yahoo’s financials given the company’s stake in Alibaba, Yahoo Japan, as well as its own earnings, and found that on Friday, the implied value of Yahoo’s core business was about negative $500 million. 

4. Apple’s latest iPhone models, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, went on sale Friday, and citing comments from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Business Insider’s Jay Yarow noted that there are three scenarios for iPhone sales this weekend for investors to keep in mind: Apple sells a smaller number that suggests limited supply, Apple sells a huge number, or Apple says nothing. Munster expects the company to announce the sale of 6.5 million iPhones this weekend. Analysts at BTIG expect sales of 10 million. 

5. Tesla shares were down more than 1.5% on Friday and finished the week with losses of more than 7%, and Business Insider’s Matthew DeBord looked at some of the problems that plagued the electric carmaker this week, namely growing skepticism from some analysts. 

6. Two commodities had big moves in opposite directions on Friday. Silver fell more than 3%to less than $18 an ounce, its lowest level in more than four years, while Cocoa rallied on fears that a potential spread of Ebola on Africa’s west coast could threaten Cocoa stocks in Ivory Coast and Ghana. 

7. Oracle shares fell more than 3.5% on Friday after the company’s CEO Larry Ellison announced on Thursday night that he would be stepping down from that post to take a position as executive chairman and CTO of the company. Oracle named both Safra Catz and Mark Hurd as CEO.