Fashion stocks notched a loss today as global markets pulled back and Apple Inc.’s long-expected move into the smartwatch category failed to inspire much investor enthusiasm.
Jack Ma and Alibaba, though, remain in the wings.
The WWD Global Stock Tracker fell 0.4 percent to 101.09 today. The steepest declines in the 100-issue tracker came from American Apparel Inc., which fell 5.3 percent to 91 cents and Avon Products Inc., which dropped 3.6 percent to $13.17. At Avon, Kimberly Ross resigned as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Outside of the fashion industry proper, tech giant Apple, which introduced a selection of smartwatches, saw it stock decline 0.4 percent to $97.99 in heavy trading. More than 189 million shares of Apple traded hands today, well above the 49 million daily average for the past three months.
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The Apple Watch helped refocus the fashion-tech crowd on Apple, but Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding is still not far out of mind.
Ma was in Boston courting investors before his company’s its IPO, which could raise more than $21 billion.
While corporate governance remains a concern, several fund managers and analysts said Ma gave an impressive performance during the company’s Boston pitch. They noted that the Chinese e-commerce company’s business model features strong cash-flow generation and low capital intensity similar to U.S. Internet darlings Facebook Inc. and Google Inc.
“He’s executed well,” said Will Danoff, who runs the $111 billion Contrafund for Fidelity Investments.
Alibaba accounts for about 80 percent of all online retail sales in China, where rising Internet usage and an expanding middle class helped the company generate gross merchandise volume of $296 billion in the 12 months ended June 30.
The IPO could value Alibaba at up to $163 billion and is expected to be priced on Sept. 18 at $60 to $66 a share.
The declines among both fashion stocks and Apple today were in step with general equity trends in the U.S. and Europe.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.6 percent to 17,013.87 in New York, while the FTSE MIB fell 0.7 percent to 21,149.80 in Milan and the CAC 40 declined 0.5 percent to 4,452.37 in Paris.
Asian markets fared somewhat better, with the Nikkei 225 gaining 0.3 percent to 15,749.15 in Tokyo.