Bank of America Flags Meta Shopping Agent as Threat to Apple's Ecosystem

Apple's stock price has fallen by 2% after Bank of America warned that Meta's shopping agent, Muse, could shift online commerce activity away from Apple's ecosystem. The analyst, Wamsi Mohan, stated that Apple could keep control of device sales but lose part of the digital activity around product discovery, referrals, and transactions.

According to Mohan, Apple's updated Siri lacks some of Muse's background task capabilities and broader third-party actions. Despite this, Bank of America maintained its Buy rating on Apple, citing the company's large installed base, user trust, and privacy-focused technology as strengths.

The concern is centered around the fact that Apple's services business relies heavily on discovery, referral, and transaction activity around its devices. This could be impacted by agents like Muse, which has gained access to commerce services from Shopify, Expedia, and PayPal, although Amazon has blocked the Meta agent.