On November 11th for China (Monday for US) represented “singles day” which is now the biggest online shopping day in the world. This means that behemoth e-commerce stock like Alibaba (BABA - Analyst Report) would see huge gains from the record sales, right? Well guess again, as BABA on Tuesday posted the worst day for BABA since the IPO.

Today’s 4% sell-off is minuscule compared to the 45% plus gains off the stock’s IPO, and analysts suspect that the stock will soar even higher as the holiday season comes along. The singles day surpasses the America’s Black Friday as the world’s most lucrative online shopping day, and with the company passing $9 billion in sales in 24 hours, it has become one of the most profitable ‘manufactured’ holidays in history.

Singles' Day—so named because the date Nov. 11 has four ‘singles’ (11/11) in it—is China's now also the equivalent of Cyber Monday, and it boasts massive sales figures. Spurred by Alibaba and its network of online retailers, the day has grown from $7 million in sales in 2009 to over $5.8 billion last year for Ma's company. Less than 21 hours into the event, Alibaba had already broken above $8 billion in sales.
 
What’s with the Sell-Off?
 
The 4% sell-off could be due to Jack Ma's Elon-Musk-esque comments on how his high stock price is based on very high expectations and he is feeling the pressure.

Selling started last night but The Jack Ma interview seemed to spark some further weakness.

As you look on the 11th, the sell off began in pre-market trading then continued to fall as the market opened. Meanwhile, volume is high today at 51 million shares topping the 3m average volume of 34.2 million indicating traders are very worried on where this stock is going today.

Buying Opportunity?

The stock has rallied over 20% in the previous five trading days, so a 3.5% loss today is nothing.  This current sell-off could be a small buying opportunity for bullish investors that want to earn that extra 3% on top of their gains when the holiday season rolls along. 

Bottom Line

We currently have BABA as a Zacks Rank #3 as the e-commerce giant has not met earnings estimates in their first reporting cycle.  For the current quarter ending in December until next year, analysts are expecting BABA to report earnings from 68 cents per share up to $1.82 per share by March 2015. 

In the past two months, a little less than half of analysts have upgraded their earnings estimates for the current quarter until next year. Investors should be keen on watching how the e-commerce giant performs in the most lucrative time of the year and see in their upcoming reports if they reveal more solid numbers, and if record sales continue for BABA in the near term.