2 days ago 3

1 Stock to Buy, 1 Stock to Sell This Week: Alibaba, Walmart

Jesse Cohen

Sun, May 11, 2025, 10:46 AM 6 min read

U.S.-China trade talks, CPI inflation, and retail sales will be in focus this week.
Alibaba is a buy with strong earnings, guidance beat on deck.
Walmart is a sell with disappointing profit growth, outlook expected.
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U.S. stocks ended the week on a quiet note on Friday to cap a losing week, as investors awaited much-anticipated talks between U.S. and China officials on trade and economic issues.

For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.2%, the S&P 500 dipped around 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed roughly 0.3%.

Source: Investing.com

More volatility could be in store this week as investors continue to assess the outlook for the economy, inflation, interest rates and corporate earnings amid President Donald Trump’s trade war.

On the economic calendar, most important will be Tuesday’s U.S. consumer price inflation report, which is forecast to show headline annual CPI rising 2.4% year-over-year in April. The CPI data will be accompanied by the release of the latest retail sales figures as well as a report on producer prices, will help fill out the inflation picture.

Source: Investing.com

That will be accompanied by a heavy slate of Fed speakers, including Chairman Jerome Powell. Interest rate futures suggest traders see an 85% chance that the Fed will keep rates unchanged at its June meeting, according to the Investing.com Fed Monitor Tool.

Meanwhile, the reporting season’s last big week sees earnings roll in from notable companies such as Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), Deere (NYSE:DE), and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA).

Regardless of which direction the market goes, below I highlight one stock likely to be in demand and another which could see fresh downside. Remember though, my timeframe is just for the week ahead, Monday, May 12 - Friday, May 16.

Alibaba is shaping up as a compelling turnaround story, making it a stock to buy this week. The Chinese e-commerce and cloud computing giant appears positioned for a positive surprise when it reports its March-ended quarter results before the market opens on Thursday at 5:35AM ET.

Recent optimism has been evident, with profit estimates revised upward ten times in the weeks leading up to the report—compared to only three downward revisions, according to InvestingPro. Market participants foresee a possible implied move of 5.9% in either direction after the print drops.