Stocks Are At All-Time Highs Ahead Of Alibaba IPO

In early trade on Friday, the Dow was up 30 points, the S&P 500 was up 7 points, and the Nasdaq was up 14 points.

The big story on Friday is the market debut of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, which priced its IPO $68 on Thursday night in the largest IPO in US stock market history.

At $68 per share, the company is raising $21.8 billion, topping the $17.8 billion raised by Visa in 2008.

As the market waits for Alibaba to begin trading, shares of Yahoo are likely to be in focus, as Yahoo is selling about $8 billion worth of its stake in Alibaba in the IPO.

By virtue of making new all-time highs on Thursday, any positive close for the Dow and the S&P 500 on Friday will mark a new record.

On Thursday, Scotland voted to remain part of the UK, sending the British pound higher against all major currency pairs.

Also on Thursday, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced he would be stepping down from that role and taking the role of executive chairman and CTO at the company. Oracle named both Safra Catz and Mark Hurd as CEO.