Alibaba's Under-The-Radar Technical Breakout

Another large-cap stock making new 2017 highs isn’t much of a story now that the “Trump Rally” has carried the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY up another 6.1 percent in 2017. However, at least one big tech stock is making new 2017 highs this week despite Trump, not because of him.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA delivered its first close above $105 on Thursday, the first time since before Trump’s election victory. Trump’s isolationist and anti-free-trade rhetoric hit many China stocks hard in the closing weeks of 2016. While the SPDR closed out the final two months of 2016 with a 5.9 percent gain, Alibaba’s stock plummeted 13.2 percent.

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The Chinese e-commerce giant has since delivered a mostly under-the-radar comeback culminating with what could be a major technical breakout this week. Alibaba is now trading at its highest level since October and looks primed to soon test $110 resistance.

Alibaba reached as high as $109.87 in September 2016, its highest point since it rallied to $120 following its 2014 IPO.

For now, technical traders will be watching both $105 and $110 to see where Alibaba may be headed next. If the stock dips back down below $105, this week’s potential breakout may have simply been a false start, and the stock could soon re-test recent support at $100. If the stock’s momentum carries it above $110, Alibaba may be headed back for a test of all-time highs at $120.

After the Thursday close at $105.64, Alibaba is up another 0.5 percent in Friday trading.

Disclosure: the author is long BABA.

Image Credit: By Rico Shen, CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0, via Wikimedia Commons