Alibaba braces for nervous customers as China'a slowing economy trims sales

Alibaba shed about $120 billion of market value through Friday since peaking in June as uncertainty from US-Chinese tensions spooked investors in front-line sectors such as technology

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is feeling the heat as China’s economy decelerates.

China’s dominant e-commerce company will offer clues to the health of the nation’s middle-class, and how it’s navigating the slowdown, when it unveils earnings Jan. 30. While revenue is expected to have risen 44 per cent during the December quarter, that’s its slowest pace of expansion since early 2016 -- potentially a sign of spreading consumer malaise.

The company founded by billionaire Jack Ma has been pivotal over the past decade in helping create a $1 trillion-plus Chinese online shopping arena, the world’s largest. But the scorching growth that made