Why Shares Of LendingClub Were Trading Higher On Tuesday (Hint: It's About Alibaba)

Shares of LendingClub Corp (NYSE: LC) were trading higher by more than 4 percent on Tuesday after the company announced a partnership with Alibaba Holding Group Ltd (NYSE: BABA).

LendingClub will team up with Alibaba to offer sales financing to small U.S. business who are buying items from Chinese suppliers. The venture will be named “Alibaba.com e-Credit Line, Powered by Lending Club” and plans to offer loans ranging from $5,000 to $300,000 to U.S. companies at rates of 0.5 percent to 2.4 percent.

“This partnership is going to make a pretty big difference in terms of U.S. business' ability to buy goods from China,” Renaud Laplanche, the chief executive of Lending Club, told The New York Times in a telephone interview.

Shares of LendingClub recently traded at $19.97, up 3.7 percent.

Shares of Alibaba recently traded at $90.34, up 0.23 percent.