FINWIRES · TerminalLIVE
FINWIRES

Meta Muse's E-Commerce Adoption Remains Uncertain, Wedbush Says

By
Meta Muse's E-Commerce Adoption Remains Uncertain, Wedbush Says

Meta Platforms' (META) personal artificial intelligence agent, Muse, has drawn strong user interest, but its broad e-commerce adoption remains uncertain, Wedbush Securities said in a Thursday note.

Earlier this month, the Facebook and Instagram parent launched Muse at no cost to users with a usage limit.

Meta will charge a fee on transactions once users reach their free limit and want more, showing the goal is not to monetize through subscription, "but to maximize adoption around agentic commerce and transaction share," Wedbush analysts Ygal Arounian and Chase Tohanczyn said in the note.

Meta said Wednesday that it will add Muse to its AI glasses in the future for hands-free control. It plans to integrate the personal agent with companies like Walmart (WMT), Best Buy (BBY), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), Gap (GAP), and Wayfair (W), as well as PayPal (PYPL) for payments.

"Muse has seen strong early downloads, and is an impressive personal AI agent, in our view, but ultimate commerce share adoption is an outstanding question," Arounian and Tohanczyn said.

While the product has some use cases, the analysts are cautious on consumers' willingness to automate transactions through an agent.

"To date, consumers have been reluctant to move purchase behavior directly into chatbots," Arounian and Tohanczyn wrote.

There's also risk that not all retailers would embrace third-party agents, the brokerage said, citing Amazon's (AMZN) move to block Muse from completing purchases on its site.

Meta's shares were up 3.4% in Thursday trade. Wedbush has a neutral rating on Meta, with a $650 price target.

Anthropic and OpenAI have called for a slowdown in the pace of AI development amid safety risks.

"Muse can and will still make mistakes, but we expect they'll be much less frequent and cause much less damage due to the safety systems we've built in," Tarek Sheasha, Meta's software engineer, said in a blog post earlier this month.

Price: $764.87, Change: $+20.77, Percent Change: +2.79%

What else is happening in US Markets?

Mynt's GCash Selling Shareholders Set to Cash Out Up to 74 Billion Pesos in Record Philippine IPO
US Markets

Mynt's GCash Selling Shareholders Set to Cash Out Up to 74 Billion Pesos in Record Philippine IPO

Existing shareholders in Mynt (PSE:GCASH), the parent of e-wallet operator GCash, are poised to net up to 62.5 billion Philippine pesos from the sale of their shares in the company's initial public offering, rising to up to 74.3 billion pesos if an overallotment option is fully exercised.The cash-out is part of a secondary offering of up to 6.42 billion shares, plus an overallotment of up to 1.2 billion more, according to an updated prospectus filed with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.Selling shareholders include Advanced New Technologies (Singapore), a unit of Alibaba (HKG:9988) affiliate Ant International; ASP Philippines; Lion Fintech Investments; Insight PHP; LGVP; and a group of individual selling shareholders. Mynt itself will not receive any proceeds from the secondary offering.The wider offering of up to 8.03 billion common shares at a maximum price of 10 pesos each is expected to raise gross proceeds of up to 80.3 billion pesos, or up to 92.3 billion pesos if the overallotment is fully exercised.The primary offering consists of 1.61 billion common shares to be issued by Mynt. The company expects to book net proceeds of about 14.9 billion pesos, which it has earmarked for digital financial services growth, product development and general corporate purposes.More than 20 cornerstone investors have committed to the deal, including international investors BlackRock, Capital Research and Management, Citadel, HSBC Global Asset Management, the International Finance Corp. and Lazard Asset Management, alongside domestic investors including units of Philippine banks The Bank of the Philippine Islands or BPI (PSE:BPI), China Banking Corp. (PSE:CBC), Metropolitan Bank & Trust or Metrobank (PSE:MBT) and Rizal Commercial Banking or RCBC (PSE:RCB).Together, the cornerstone investors agreed to subscribe to 59.8% of the offer shares, or 68.8% if the overallotment option is exercised.The shares are expected to be priced on Oct. 1, with the final IPO price announced the next day. The offer period will run from Oct. 6 to Oct. 12, ahead of Mynt's planned PSE debut on Oct. 20 under the ticker GCASH.Mynt's strategic backers include Alibaba affiliate Ant International, Globe Telecom (PSE:GLO), Ayala Corp. (PSE:AC), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (TYO:8306) and Mitsubishi Corp. (TYO:8058).As of June 30, Mynt reported 41.5 million monthly active users of GCash, representing roughly 56% of the Philippines' adult population. It processed over 17 trillion pesos in payment transactions in 2025, up from 13.3 trillion pesos in 2024.Net income in the first half of 2026 stood at 10.8 billion pesos, up from 10.1 billion pesos a year prior.The company has been granted a reduced minimum public ownership requirement of 12%.If completed near its IPO ceiling price, the deal would surpass Monde Nissin's (PSE:MONDE) 55.9 ⁠billion-peso IPO in 2021."I hope this landmark listing will pave the way for more fintech and digital economy firms to go public and raise capital through the equities market," said PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon last week.

HKG:9988PSE:ACPSE:BPIPSE:CBCPSE:GCASHPSE:GLOPSE:MBTPSE:MONDEPSE:RCBTYO:8058TYO:8306
Australia's Jobless Rate Edges Higher in August as Labor Force Expands
US Markets

Australia's Jobless Rate Edges Higher in August as Labor Force Expands

Australia's unemployment rate crept higher in August as full-time employment fell by 6,000 people, providing a surprise result in the last major economic data release ahead of the central bank's upcoming monetary policy meeting.The country's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged 20 basis points higher from the previous month to 4.6% in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.The number of employed Australians increased by 39,500 from July to reach about 14.8 million, while the ranks of the unemployed swelled by 28,200 to 722,900 people."This August we recorded a higher proportion of people who were previously not in the labor force moving to being unemployed, compared to recent years," said Sean Crick, head of labor statistics at the ABS.That labor force expansion resulted in the participation rate, which measures the percentage of the working-age population who either hold a job or are actively looking for one, rising to 67.1% in August from 66.9% in July.The official data also showed Australia's employment-to-population ratio holding steady at 63.9%, and the underemployment rate sliding by 10 basis points to 6.2%. Across all jobs, the volume of monthly hours worked increased to just over 2 billion in August.Westpac expected the jobless rate to hold steady at 4.5%, saying in a recent report that it anticipates a slowing in the pace of employment growth through the second half of this year as headwinds are building.Australia's central bank is due to meet again next week for a decision on interest rates. Governor Michele Bullock hinted at a potential rate hike during her opening speech to a House of Representatives' standing committee, saying that some upside risks to inflation appear to be materializing despite the economy's decelerating growth.

ASX 200
Update: Nasdaq Retreats From Record, Yields Surge Amid Mounting Rate Hike Bets
US Markets

Update: Nasdaq Retreats From Record, Yields Surge Amid Mounting Rate Hike Bets

(Updates with market moves at the end of the day, and other changes, if any.)The Nasdaq Composite fell Wednesday after logging back-to-back closing records, while bond yields surged as bets increased for another Federal Reserve interest rate hike in October.The Nasdaq shed 1.1% to end the session at 26,936.04. The S&P 500 dipped 0.8% to 7,706.03, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7% to 51,511.59. Except energy, all sectors were in the red, led by communication services and utilities.Treasury yields rose across the board, with the 10-year yield up 13.5 basis points at 5.102%, while the two-year yield jumped 11.6 basis points to 4.893%.Fed Governor Michael Barr on Wednesday called for additional interest rate increases, the latest central bank official sounding the alarm on inflation being stuck above the 2% goal. Last week, the Fed delivered its first rate hike in just over three years.In remarks for an event hosted by the Chicago Fed, Barr expressed concern over US inflation not easing toward the target in a timely way, warning that risks are tilted to the upside."In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion," Barr said. "We want to support sustainable, durable growth in support of maximum employment, and price stability is crucial to that."Markets are now pricing in a 69% probability that the Fed will lift interest rates again by 25 basis points in October, according to the CME FedWatch tool. That's up from 55% on Tuesday.West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 2.4% at $92.65 a barrel in Wednesday late-afternoon trade, while Brent advanced 4.4% to $103.58.Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said in his address at the United Nations General Assembly that his country will "never bow our head or bend at the knee," CNN reported. Pezeshkian called on other nations to work together to pursue peace in the face of what he described as "bullying," according to the report.Chinese leader Xi Jinping was expected to arrive in Washington on Wednesday. Xi and US President Donald Trump are set to discuss trade, artificial intelligence and potentially the war in Iran.US private-sector output growth accelerated to a 62-month high in September, while price pressures intensified, S&P Global's (SPGI) flash purchasing managers' index showed Wednesday.Mortgage applications in the US fell last week as a key 30-year rate crossed 7% to reach the highest level in more than two years, potentially worsening ongoing affordability challenges.In company news, Paychex (PAYX) shares were the worst performer on the S&P 500, down 8.8%. The human resources software provider reported fiscal first-quarter revenue growth in line with market expectations, while management reiterated its full-year outlook amid a tough comparison in the ongoing three-month period.McDonald's (MCD) unveiled its NEXT strategy, setting new financial targets for the fast-food giant, including market share gains, restaurant efficiency and unit expansion to increase systemwide sales. The stock slumped 4.8%, the steepest drop on the Dow.Cracker Barrel Old Country Store's (CBRL) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings increased year on year, partly driven by tariff refunds, while the restaurant chain's chief financial officer said its traffic trends were improving. The stock climbed 4.5%.Spot gold fell 1.9% to $4,278.77 per troy ounce, while silver shed 2.5% to $64.89 per ounce.

Dow JonesNasdaq CompositeS&P 500$MCDCBRL$PAYX$SPGI