Alibaba's astronomical Singles' Day sales failed to boost its share price, with shares closing down 2 percent in New York on Wednesday, so what happened?

The e-commerce giant handled $14.3 billion in sales over the 24-hour shopping period, a 60 percent increase compared to 2014. At first the stock was up until the 51-year old founder Jack Ma made some cautionary comments about growth expectations in China and the impact on Alibaba.

The Company’s founder said the next five to 15 months would be a tough time for the mainland, citing the impact of President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption fight. But he said Beijing's 7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) target was still achievable during that time frame.

In a bigger perspective, Alibaba shares are down more than 20 percent from last year as the world's second-largest economy grows at its slowest pace since 2009, with GDP sliding below 7 percent in the July-September quarter following weakening investment, excess capacity in the industrial sector and a strong currency.

Because Alibaba's business model relies on consumption, a broad economic slowdown is worrisome in the longer term and shadowing any short-term boost from record Singles' Day sales.

"The largest area of concern for Alibaba is the slowdown of Chinese growth and how that might hurt the domestic consumption, and that's the dark cloud over all the Chinese internet names today.

Others were more upbeat on Alibaba's outlook as they acknowledge that negative sentiment on the company's stock was directly tied to views on the broader economy, but said it was misguided. They believe that this is a complete misread for China internet/e-commerce, because those companies are delivering solid fundamentals even during a time that the country is slowing.

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China's online shoppers spent billions today, smashing records on "Singles' Day."

The annual online shopping festival, the Chinese version of "Cyber Monday" is the biggest single day of shopping anywhere in the world.

Within the first eight minutes, customers had spent $1 billion on Alibaba's popular shopping platforms, Taobao and Tmall. By 12:32 p.m. in China, gross merchandise volume settled through its payment service, Alipay, topped $9.3 billion, breaking last year's tally.

Numbers climbed rapidly as shoppers bought refrigerators, dresses, purses, groceries and more. Sales on this day beats Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in the U.S.

Singles' Day in China began as a clever counter to Valentine's Day. It takes place each year on Nov. 11 -- or 11/11, which represents four single people. Originally, lonely singles were encouraged to pamper and spoil themselves and other single friends by going shopping for gifts. Now, it's morphed into a crazy shopping bonanza that rakes in tons of cash for brands and retailers, both big and small.

This year's blowout featured more than six million products from 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands from 25 countries on Alibaba's shopping platforms. Other online platforms, such as JD.com (JD), also got in on the game, with international brands and retailers, including Macy's, Costco, Apple and Nike, offering deals on everything from sneakers to smartphones.

The 24-hour sale is expected to generate 760 million packages for delivery, 40% more than last year, China's postal bureau estimated. Many delivery services hired thousands of temporary workers to ease the burden.

Huge signs advertising promotions started popping up last month. Some shoppers prepared themselves in advance to make sure they could get their hands on the best deals.

Shoppers weren't the only ones competing for the goods. China's e-commerce firms also gear up for the big day, and compete with each other over final sales amounts.

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump weighed in on the latest odd Starbucks controversy, saying that maybe Americans shout boycott the Company.

Trump thinks it is reasonable to boycott Starbucks after the coffee giant announced it would abandon its Christmas-themed cups.

"I have one of the most successful Starbucks, in Trump Tower. Maybe we should boycott Starbucks? I don't know. Seriously, I don't care. That's the end of that lease, but who cares?" Trump told a crowd in Springfield, Illinois, on Monday. "If I become president, we're all going to be saying Merry Christmas again, that I can tell you. That I can tell you."

Trump's comments, on the eve of the next Republican presidential debate, is his latest rhetoric to win over Christian evangelicals who are much of the base in states like Iowa and South Carolina. Trump is grappling with Ben Carson, the other Republican front-runner and an evangelical favorite, in those two early voting states.

Starbucks said earlier that it had removed "symbols of the season" used in the past, which have included reindeer and ornaments, in favor of a simple, two-toned red cup. Some Christian leaders have long attacked secular businesses for waging a "War on Christmas" and prevented customers and employees from sharing Christmas greetings.

Trump previously pledged to his allegiance to Christmas during a campaign rally in October. "I guarantee if I become president, we're going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' at every store," he had said.

Only the customers can decide whether they think it’s justified to boycott Starbucks because of a change in their cups design and the fact that they don’t want to tell their customers ‘Merry Christmas’ anymore.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is out creating a buzz for the 12-inch iPad Pro tablet, which launches later this week, and he doesn't really see why anybody would need a full personal computer anymore.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Cook said, "I think if you're looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?"

He continued: "Yes, the iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones."

But recent history is against him. The iPad has seen seven straight quarters of declining sales — measured against the previous year — dipping below 10 million for the first time since mid-2011, and analysts seem to have given up on it.

The overall tablet market has been declining for the past year as well. Meanwhile, Apple's Mac business has been doing better than ever before, last quarter, the company sold a record 5.71 million Macs.

The iPad Pro is Apple's latest attempt to reverse this trend. Like the Microsoft Surface, which Cook once described as being like a combination refrigerator and toaster, the iPad Pro comes with an optional attachable keyboard. You can also buy a stylus for it to sketch on the screen. It also has a larger screen than those of previous iPads, coming in at almost 13 inches diagonally.

Cook acknowledged that the larger iPhone screen, introduced with the iPhone 6 in 2014, might have hurt iPad and iPad Mini sales. But he said Apple didn't mind as long as it was eating itself.

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