The 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.116%. Reported odds of an October quarter-point Fed hike rose to 73%, from 55% the day before.
At the same time, Meta launched Muse with paid plans and shopping partners. Borrowing is getting more expensive, while Meta is testing whether its AI spending can bring in revenue.
Strong Activity Is Pushing Rates Higher
U.S. services activity rose to 58.7 in September from 56.5 in August. Manufacturing reached 56.7. Fed Governor Michael Barr said further rate hikes are likely necessary.
The 10-year yield rose more than 14 basis points to 5.116%. Higher yields mean higher borrowing costs. They also make the rate outlook harder for stocks, especially when investors are paying for future growth.
The oil reports did not agree. A September 23 macro digest said Brent jumped nearly 4% and moved back above $103. A separate recap said it settled near $99 after a fifth straight down day. S&P Global’s chief business economist said fuel and transport costs helped push input costs up at their fastest pace in four years.
The market closes differed too. One X recap reported a second straight Nasdaq record close, up 0.5%, while JPMorgan and Wells Fargo each fell more than 3%. The September 23 macro digest reported declines of 0.75% for the S&P 500 and 1.13% for the Nasdaq. Shay Boloor said he would have expected a VIX above 30 with rates and oil at these levels, yet reported it at 15.
Reuters reported that the U.S. and China extended their trade truce to January, a shorter extension than markets had hoped for. Bloomberg reported that Japan raised rates following pressure from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
A market recap also reported $999 million of spot Bitcoin ETF inflows on Monday, 1,141 tonnes of Chinese gold imports in the first eight months of 2026, and roughly $79 million to $270 million in July transactions made on Trump’s behalf. The White House said third parties managed those transactions independently. The recap listed Nvidia as the most active options name at 2.1 million contracts.
Tencent Music Has Assets, but Users Are Falling
A value investing blog reported that Tencent Music shares fell 68% over the last year. It put the company at a single-digit price-to-earnings ratio and a $12 billion market value.
The blog cited $6 billion in cash and $5.3 billion in non-current and long-term investments, including $2.7 billion in Universal Music Group and Spotify stakes. It gave differing breakdowns of liquid holdings, so there is no settled asset total to use.
Meanwhile, monthly active users fell 4.3% to 551 million amid competition from ByteDance, TikTok and Douyin. Management says it is focusing on customers who pay more.
Tencent Music bought podcast platform Himalaya for $2.4 billion, partly by issuing shares. The blog says Himalaya brings 300 million users alongside Tencent Music’s existing 500 million base, with some overlap. Management expects more revenue but a near-term squeeze on gross profit margins. Its longer-term aim is to bring more higher-paying customers onto the platform.
The company generated $1.3 billion in net income and authorized a $1 billion buyback, including $400 million of repurchases in one quarter. The blog says it uses loans and debt for buybacks because Chinese restrictions limit its ability to send domestic cash to global investors.
The speaker added Tencent Music to a public portfolio’s “value bets” category, with purchase decisions reviewed monthly. The stated test is whether the music business stays profitable over the next 10 years.
Other Tech Reports Point in Different Directions
An X post reported orders for 2,500 Tesla Semis, a Robotaxi fleet of 69 Cybercabs, Grok Bot integration in vehicles and Czechia’s approval of FSD. It claimed Model 3 and Model Y were sold out in the U.S. for the rest of 2026 and attributed a $320 billion 2035 Robotaxi revenue estimate to JPMorgan. Another account said the standard Model Y was backlogged into next year and put Tesla’s decline for the year at 16%. A separate year-to-date list put it at 17%.
An X analysis put AMD’s stock gain over 17 months at 8 times, versus 2.4 times for Nvidia, despite Nvidia’s faster reported revenue growth over that period. A market recap said Micron rose about 5% and SanDisk about 7%. Rosenblatt began SanDisk coverage with a Buy rating and a $2,400 target.
Citi reiterated a Buy rating and $600 target for AppLovin, citing 13,105 global e-commerce clients as of September 18, up 5.1% week over week. SoFi said it became the first U.S. national bank to use stablecoin settlement across Mastercard’s network for card programs representing more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume.
Apple introduced an M6 Mac mini starting at $899 and new Mac Studio models starting at $2,499. IonQ reported a real-time quantum error correction decoder that used as little as 0.02% CPU processing overhead in its tests.
An X report said Anthropic is reportedly spending $1.25 billion a month on SpaceX compute. Another said Stanley Druckenmiller opened a $120 million Alphabet position after Google Cloud reported 82% revenue growth. MentoviaX predicted an end-of-2027 “Magnificent Ten” ranking led by SpaceX, Nvidia and Alphabet.
Muse Has Partners. Its Shopping Revenue Plan Is Still Open
Meta’s Muse personal agent can book appointments and fill out forms. It launched with a free tier and monthly plans of $20 or $100, depending on usage. Mark Zuckerberg has described personal agents as a reason for Meta’s heavy spending on data centers and infrastructure.
Reported shopping and booking integrations include Instacart, PayPal, Expedia and Shopify. Alexandr Wang also named future integrations, including Walmart, Best Buy and Sephora. Wang said Meta is exploring a cut of agent-related shopping transactions, but has settled on no plan.
The reported response has been large. Matt Deitke reported share-price gains after partnership announcements of 13% for Shopify, 4.9% for PayPal and 7.2% for Expedia. Boloor said Muse reached 2.8 million downloads in 12 days and that Meta added roughly $340 billion in market value after launch. Those figures show interest. They do not tell us what Muse will earn.
Boloor proposed that Meta buy PayPal for $75 a share, describing a roughly $60 billion deal at about 9 times free cash flow. He also pointed out that Meta can use payment services without owning PayPal. For now, Meta has a partnership.
Muse is also moving toward devices. Reuters reported a new handheld device called Meta Charm. Meta unveiled $1,299 VR glasses weighing 100 grams, with the battery and compute in a separate pack and availability planned for spring 2027. An X account separately reported that a Google executive teased AI glasses using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1.
Trust matters when an agent handles personal tasks. CNBC reported that users must opt out if they do not want their agent interactions used to train Meta’s models. Wang said Muse runs in an isolated environment, does not see passwords or payment details, and asks before sensitive actions. Meta recently agreed to a nearly $17 billion settlement over allegations concerning harm on Facebook and Instagram, while similar lawsuits remain. Reuters also reported growing calls for tighter AI regulation even as tech stocks climb.
Patient Investor listed price-to-earnings ratios of 37 for Apple, 22 for Meta and 19 for Nvidia. Pedro Costa argued that Apple was the most overvalued of the group and questioned what it had delivered since the M1 release. For Meta, the open question is whether Muse can turn its AI spending into revenue.