Why Alibaba Stock Is Falling Today

What happened

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding ( BABA -2.06% ), a leading tech company in China, were sliding this morning on continued investor concerns that strict lockdowns in Shanghai and across China will hurt economic growth.

The tech stock was down by as much as 5.4% this morning and had fallen 2.2% as of 10:50 a.m. ET on Monday.  

So what 

Investors have been growing increasingly pessimistic about Chinese stocks recently as the government has implemented a strict zero-COVID policy across China. 

Image source: Getty Images.

Beginning in March, the lockdowns hit Shanghai, China’s financial center, and have caused investors to worry that they’ll hurt China’s economic growth — and thus hurt large tech companies like Alibaba. 

With today’s drop, Alibaba’s stock price has plummeted 26% over the past month. Shares have also been on a downward trajectory over the past year, tumbling 63% over the past 12 months. 

Now what 

China isn’t anywhere near finished with its strict COVID lockdowns, and some experts fear that they could soon spread to Beijing. 

The lockdowns already have slowed the country’s retail sales and industrial production. Retail sales slid 3.5% year over year in March and industrial production grew by just 5%, compared to 7.5% growth in the previous month, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

And with no end in sight to the zero-COVID policy, Alibaba investors, and Chinese stock investors in general, should likely prepare for more share dips over the short term.