Alibaba encroaches on Amazon’s turf, GM makes progress in South Korea, Sam’s Club and Instacart team up

Here’s a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you.

Alibaba (BABA) is taking on Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) in Europe. The Chinese tech giant launched eight new products today, including big data and Artificial intelligence services. In the past, Baba focused on helping Chinese customers working in Europe. Now, it’s shifting to provide quote “true connectivity, both locally and globally.”

GM (GM) is set to resume wage talks with its South Korean labor union. Wage negotiations were originally suspended earlier this month after GM shut down one of its four factories in South Korea. Now there is increased pressure on the union to make wage concessions to prevent GM’s complete exit from the region. GM employs 16,000 people in the South Korea.

Sam’s Club (WMT) is partnering with delivery company Instacart in an effort to better compete with Amazon (AMZN). The deal will allow Walmart’s Sam’s Club to provide customers with same-day delivery. Instacart customers also get an added perk of being able to shop at Sam’s without a membership.

We already knew pre-orders for Apple’s (AAPL) HomePod were a rip-roaring success. Now, the NPD Group reports the device is one of the best-selling smart speakers ever, second only to Amazon’s Echo Dot. The tech giant’s AirPods and Beats headphones accounted for nearly half of all headphone sales last year.