Alibaba Singles' Day sales jump 25% in first nine hours to 17.9 billion pounds

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Chinese retailer Alibaba on Monday said sales for its annual Singles' Day shopping blitz jumped 25% in the first nine hours to $23 billion (17.9 billion pounds), nearly two thirds of U.S. rival Amazon.com Inc's online store sales in the latest quarter.Sales growth for the full 24-hour event, however, is likely to fall short of the year earlier, analysts said, at a time when China's economic expansion heads toward a historic low.The event, a gauge of Chinese consumer..