Alibaba, JD.com drop as Beijing rebukes 618 discount pitches

Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com shares fell in Hong Kong after Beijing's market regulator rebuked major e-commerce platforms over allegedly misleading promotions tied to China's annual 618 shopping festival. Alibaba dropped as much as 5.9%, its biggest intraday decline in nearly three months, while JD.com posted a similar slide, its steepest since November. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the Beijing branch of the State Administration for Market Regulation summoned Alibaba, JD.com, PDD Holdings, ByteDance and Xiaohongshu Technology. Officials faulted some platforms for touting tens of billions of yuan in subsidies without clearly detailing what merchants and shoppers would actually receive.