Alibaba shares surge on Jack Ma travel

Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi, Brian Cheung, and Julie Hyman break down how Alibaba is faring in Wednesday’s market

Video transcript

- And finally, away from health care, the return of Jack Ma, of course, co-founder of Alibaba. He was sort of in lockdown for quite some time. Wasn't seen publicly for a while, then even after he was seen publicly, he didn't leave China. And now, he's outside of China.

Reportedly he is in Spain after traveling to Hong Kong. This is according to the South China Morning Post, which is actually owned by Alibaba. And interestingly, this was giving a bigger lift to the shares in the premarket. But even still, it's up about 1.5% right now, you guys.

Because you know, Jack Ma is really seen as being intertwined with the company. Perhaps this means that the people are reading it, to me, maybe that the intense regulatory scrutiny in China on big tech is now being loosened if Jack Ma is taking a holiday in Spain, Brian Sozzi.

BRIAN SOZZI: Great. If you're a trading Alibaba or other Chinese names, you'll take any good news at this point. I haven't seen any photos of him out there, but you know, good to see him potentially having re-emerged.

- Yeah, and I think-- well, just broadly speaking, right? It's probably not a good thing if your stock is swinging this much on the appearance of just the person that's important to the company. It's important remember, he's not even the CEO, right? He hasn't been the CEO in years. In fact, he hasn't even been executive chairman. He would-- I think resigned, what? Two years ago, as an executive chairman?

So obviously it just underscores how important he is to the appearance of this company. But you know, obviously when it comes to relationships with the CCP, and just kind of their internal workings through that regulatory environment, maybe he does remain a central figure. But all open questions. I don't know. Maybe this just increases the pay, at least, for paparazzi who are chasing tech stars around the world, so I guess good for them.

- Who knows? Maybe people are just desperate for some good news when it comes to these stocks. Although Alibaba, like a lot of the other China ADRs, has bounced off of the lows.