{"id":56501,"date":"2025-11-26T14:38:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/pentagon-flags-alibaba-for-china-military-ties-as-us-rig-count-declines\/56501\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T14:38:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:38:30","slug":"pentagon-flags-alibaba-for-china-military-ties-as-us-rig-count-declines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/pentagon-flags-alibaba-for-china-military-ties-as-us-rig-count-declines\/56501\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Flags Alibaba for China-Military Ties as US Rig Count Declines"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Pentagon<\/strong> has stated that <strong>Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/BABA\">BABA<\/a>) should be added to a list of firms with <strong>China\u2013military ties<\/strong>, citing allegations of technology and data support to the People&#39;s Liberation Army (PLA).<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>total U.S. Baker Hughes rig count<\/strong> fell by <strong>10<\/strong> to <strong>544<\/strong> in the week ending November 26, down from <strong>554<\/strong> the previous week.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Oil rigs<\/strong> in the U.S. decreased by <strong>12<\/strong> to <strong>407<\/strong>, while <strong>natural gas rigs<\/strong> saw an increase of <strong>3<\/strong> to <strong>130<\/strong> during the same period.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Horizontal drilling rigs<\/strong> in the U.S. also experienced a decline, falling by <strong>6<\/strong> to a total of <strong>475<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>Pentagon<\/strong> has reportedly asserted that Chinese e-commerce and technology giant <strong>Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/BABA\">BABA<\/a>) should be included on a list of companies with alleged ties to the <strong>Chinese military<\/strong>. This development comes amid heightened U.S. scrutiny of Chinese tech firms, with a White House memo citing declassified intelligence that alleges Alibaba has provided the People&#39;s Liberation Army (PLA) with technology and sensitive user data for operations targeting the United States. Alibaba has <em>forcefully rejected these allegations<\/em>, describing them as &quot;complete nonsense&quot; and an attempt to manipulate public opinion.<\/p>\n<p>In the energy sector, the latest <strong>Baker Hughes<\/strong> data for the week ending November 26 indicates a notable contraction in overall U.S. drilling activity. The <strong>total U.S. oil and natural gas rig count<\/strong> decreased by <strong>10<\/strong> to <strong>544<\/strong>, down from <strong>554<\/strong> in the prior week. This decline was primarily driven by a reduction in <strong>oil drilling rigs<\/strong>, which fell by <strong>12<\/strong> to <strong>407<\/strong> from <strong>419<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, the <strong>U.S. natural gas drilling rig count<\/strong> showed a slight increase, rising by <strong>3<\/strong> to <strong>130<\/strong> in the same week. Meanwhile, <strong>horizontal drilling rigs<\/strong>, a key indicator of shale activity, also saw a decline, falling by <strong>6<\/strong> to <strong>475<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Regionally, the <strong>Gulf of Mexico<\/strong> saw a decrease of <strong>1<\/strong> rig, and <strong>Texas<\/strong> experienced a more significant drop of <strong>8<\/strong> rigs in the week to November 26. In terms of major basins, the <strong>Permian Basin<\/strong> recorded a decrease of <strong>3<\/strong> rigs, and the <strong>Eagle Ford<\/strong> basin was down by <strong>2<\/strong> rigs. Other basins such as <strong>Williston<\/strong>, <strong>Niobrara<\/strong>, <strong>Haynesville<\/strong>, and <strong>Utica<\/strong> remained unchanged during the week. <em>These shifts reflect ongoing adjustments by energy firms in response to market conditions and a focus on capital discipline.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways The Pentagon has stated that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) should be added to a list of firms [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[9708,1327,15088,3743,15089,5030,5393,6039,6040,6048,6079,9439],"class_list":["post-56501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-china","tag-military-ties","tag-baba","tag-drilling","tag-energy","tag-natural-gas","tag-rig-count","tag-baker-hughes","tag-pentagon","tag-alibaba","tag-pla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}