Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages continue to trade in a relatively tight range below their baselines at midday. 

Though not a component of the S&P 500, Alibaba (BABA 124.86, -9.56, -7.12%) is trading sharply lower following its Q3 report as the company missed expectations on both revenue and EPS, with profitability coming under heavy pressure from stepped-up e-commerce promotions and infrastructure spending tied to AI and cloud. Non-GAAP EPS plunged by about 67% year-over-year, underscoring how BABA's renewed push to defend share in a brutally competitive domestic e-commerce market and to build out AI and cloud capacity is weighing on near-term margins even as select growth engines, particularly Cloud Intelligence, show strong momentum.