Apple Stock Falls 2% Amid Warning Over Meta's Shopping Agent
Apple's stock fell by 2% on September 29th as Bank of America warned that Meta's Muse agent could shift online commerce activity away from Apple's ecosystem. According to analyst Wamsi Mohan, this could affect Apple's high-margin services business. However, Bank of America kept its Buy rating on Apple, citing the company's large installed base and user trust.
Mohan stated that while Apple may keep control of device sales, it could lose part of the digital activity around product discovery, referrals, and transactions. He noted that Apple's updated Siri lacks some of Muse's background task capabilities and broader third-party actions.
Alphabet's stock slipped 0.9% due to overlapping search-bypass risk, while Microsoft fell just 0.3%. This is because Microsoft's focus on enterprise cloud limits its exposure to consumer shopping agents.