3 Things to Know about the Alibaba’s IPO

Chinese tech giant Alibaba is gearing up for a market debut that could set new records, reports CNNMoney’s Sophia Yan. Now that it's just around the corner, here are three things you need to know before the big splash:

1. It's any day, folks

Hangzhou-based Alibaba is expected to launch its initial public offering early in the week of Sept. 8, according to media reports.

The company could then start trading as soon as Sept. 18 or 19 on the New York Stock Exchange. The firm will trade under the "BABA" symbol.

An Alibaba spokesperson declined to comment.

The world's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba had sales of nearly $250 billion last year on its two most popular online shopping sites, Taobao and Tmall. The pair of sites handle 80% of China's online retail sales and receive more than 100 million visitors a day.

Alibaba also dabbles in online payments, cloud computing and investment products. Recent acquisitions suggest it's also making a big move into entertainment.

2. Super size it!

Analysts say Alibaba could be worth as much as $200 billion. That's almost the market cap of Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) and Ebay (EBAY, Tech30) combined; or four times more than Lockheed Martin (LMT), the world's largest defense firm.

With those numbers, it's perhaps no surprise that the Chinese company's market debut might raise even more than Facebook's $16 billion IPO in May 2012.

Just last week, Alibaba announced that profits tripled to nearly $2 billion in the most recent quarter.

3. Delays possible

Alibaba is a behemoth, but that hasn't prevented the firm from racing toward its IPO.

Still, the timing could yet change. The company is reportedly settling final issues with U.S. regulators, and won't be able to pull the trigger until the Securities and Exchange Commission has signed off.

After securing regulatory approval, Alibaba will pitch itself to investors to generate enough buzz to ensure a solid performance for the shares when they start trading.

Lingering concerns may include how the firm structures deals, and whether shareholders will have enough say in the company's direction.

Investors may also be put off by accounting problems at Alibaba Pictures, the firm's recently-acquired film division. (CNNMoney)

Dollar General Raises Bid for Family Dollar, Threatens to go Hostile

Dollar General Corp raised its bid for Family Dollar Stores Inc. to $80 per share, or $9.1 billion, and warned it may turn hostile and appeal directly to shareholders if the new offer was rejected, reports Reuters.

The No.1 U.S. deep-discount retailer also said it would pay a break-up fee of $500 million if the deal ran foul of competition law, the reason Family Dollar had cited for its rejection of the earlier $8.95 billion offer.

Family Dollar opted instead for an $8.5 billion cash-and-stock bid from Dollar Tree Inc.

Family Dollar's shares were up almost 1 percent at $80.52 in premarket trading on Tuesday, above Dollar General's offer, suggesting some investors held hopes of higher offers.

Shares of Dollar General, which increased its all-cash offer by 2 percent, were up 2.3 percent.

"In the event you refuse to engage with us regarding our revised proposal, we will consider taking our persuasive and superior proposal directly to your shareholders," Dollar General Chief Executive Rick Dreiling said in a letter to Family Dollar's board on Tuesday.

Dollar General also said it was willing to sell up to 1,500 stores to clear the antitrust review, up from the 700 it had proposed earlier.

The company said it hired Richard Feinstein, a former director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, to further "validate its antitrust analysis".

Playing down antitrust concerns, Dollar General said its documents would show that the products it offers are not unique as they are also available at most mass retailers, drug and grocery stores.

It also said that Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and not Family Dollar, was the primary driver for the company's pricing decisions.

Dollar General and Family Dollar offer goods at multiple price points, while Dollar Tree sticks to a $1 or less format.

The Dollar Tree bid is friendlier to Family Dollar's management.

Chief Executive Howard Levine, son of Family Dollar's founder, would remain CEO of the Matthews, North Carolina-based company were it to be bought by Dollar Tree.

If Dollar General succeeds in buying Family Dollar, Levine is widely expected to lose his job, although this has not been confirmed. (Reuters)

4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Fear September

September has historically been the worst month for the market, reports CNNMoney’s Paul R. La Monica.

So with stocks near record highs, should investors be worried about a big September swoon once the Hampton Jitney returns to Wall Street after Labor Day?

Many experts say no. Here are 4 reasons why.

1. September has a bad reputation. Yes, September is often a terrible month for the market. The numbers (and the Stock Trader's Almanac) don't lie. The S&P 500 has recorded an average drop of 0.5% in September since 1950.

But recent history may be more important to consider. During the past five Septembers, stocks have enjoyed solid gains every year except in 2011 -- the month after Standard & Poor's cut the credit rating of the United States and while the euro debt crisis was in full swing. (September 2008 was, of course, a month to forget as well.)

When stocks have gone down in September, it's not because it was September. It was because there was bad news to justify a sell-off. Which brings me to my next point ...

2. The U.S. still looks healthier than the rest of the world. The economy bounced back in the second quarter after a horrible first quarter. The job market is heating up. Earnings growth has been decent and revenues are actually on the upswing too -- a sign that businesses are benefiting from actual demand and not just cost-cutting.

"When push comes to shove, Corporate America is doing really well," said John Norris, managing director with Oakworth Capital Bank.

Yes, there are lots of scary things going on around the globe. ISIS. Ukraine. Ebola.

But Norris said investors often tend to look inwards when global risks are mounting. And American investors aren't the only ones who realize this.

3. The rest of the world loves the U.S. too. U.S. stocks aren't the only financial asset in the middle of a bull market. American bonds have continued to rally this year, defying expectations for a big pullback that many experts were predicting as the year began.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury is hovering around 2.34% as investors keep buying bonds and push rates lower. The yield at the beginning of 2014 was slightly above 3%.

Shouldn't bond prices be plunging and yields soaring as investors pull money out of these so-called safer assets and plow them back into stocks? To quote my kindergarten-bound son's new favorite saying: What the heck?

Simply put, investors in Europe and Asia are interested in U.S. bonds and stocks because of geopolitical turmoil. Anthony Valeri, market strategist at LPL Financial, says that the threat of deflation in Europe is a key reason why U.S. assets are more attractive.

"Europe has a strong gravitational pull on the market right now," Valeri said.

China and Japan, which each own more than $1 trillion in U.S. government debt, may keep buying bonds as well. Due to such strong foreign demand, Sharon Stark, chief market strategist with D.A. Davison, said that she would not be surprised to see the 10-year yield fall as low as 2.15% in the next few weeks.

4. Investors STILL doubt the bull market. This is key. Even though the S&P 500 is staying near the gaudy sounding level of 2,000 and private startups like Snapchat, Uber and Airbnb are commanding valuations above $10 billion, most stocks are still trading at reasonable, if not exactly cheap, levels.

This is not a bubble like 1999. And that's because many investors have remained on the sidelines due to memories of the financial crisis. CNNMoney's Fear and Greed Index, a measure of seven gauges of market sentiment, has been in Fear mode for the past month.

"Unlike the late 90s, people think stocks are still risky. Everyone has the bad taste of 2008 in their mouth," said Marty Leclerc, chief investment officer of Barrack Yard Advisors.

Now this may not mean that stocks are going to have a huge rally in September. Valeri said a brief pause for the market makes sense as traders come back from vacation, the corporate news cycle picks up and volume increases.

At some point, the people who keep questioning the market may have no choice but to hold their nose and jump in. Stark points out that investors waiting for bond rates to rise and stocks to fall "have left a lot of money on the table."

As cliche as it may sound, sometimes you just can't fight momentum -- even if it doesn't seem to make sense.

"The psyche for the market is for stocks to go up," Norris said. (CNNMoney)