META launches AI agent 'Muse', shares surge; AAPL foldable iPhone priced at $1,999 | Daily News Recap

0910 | Dolphin Focus

🐬 Macro/Industries

1. The U.S. Treasury expanded long-term bond buybacks to $6bn, well below Wall St.’s ~$10bn upbeat expectations. Following the announcement of Thursday’s operation size, USTs sold off and the 10Y yield hit a near three-year high.The undersized buyback suggests fiscal/monetary tools have limited grip on the long end. Markets increasingly worry about U.S. medium- to long-term fiscal sustainability and a potential return to Fed tightening; risk-off and higher USD rates could weigh on high-multiple assets.

2. Iran’s IRGC said it will establish a maritime ‘sanctions zone’ from Chabahar port into the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, with uncoordinated entrants subject to sanctions. Concurrent U.S.–Iran strikes escalated, Brent topped $100.77/bbl and WTI rose above $95; the EIA raised its oil price forecasts.Transit risk in the Strait of Hormuz jumped, crude hit a 6-week high and is up over 60% YTD. This may pressure global inflation and bolster expectations for further Fed hikes.

🐬 Stocks

1. META

Meta launched its personal AI agent ‘Muse’ on Wed, powered by Muse Spark 1.3 and running on a dedicated cloud VM; it can send emails, shop, and book travel on users’ behalf. Pricing includes a free tier and $20/$100 subscriptions, with integrations such as Google Workspace and Ticketmaster.This marks a major push into consumer ‘autonomous execution’ alongside Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The dedicated VM and mandatory confirmations for sensitive actions reflect a more restrained design.

2. AAPL

Apple held its annual fall event on Wed and unveiled its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, Apple Watch 12/Ultra 4, and AirPods 5, with sales starting Oct 23. The foldable features a 7.6'' inner display and 5.4'' outer display, the A20 Pro chip, and an almost crease-less design.It is Apple’s biggest form-factor change in years, but the $2,000 starting price limits mass appeal and production capacity may be constrained.

3. 9988 HK

Alibaba will integrate the 1688 and Alibaba.com platforms under unified operations led by Zhang Kuo, while former 1688 head Yu Yong will take another role within the group. In Aug, Alibaba’s earnings reorganized e-comm into four segments and ‘Global Wholesale’ for the first time combined disclosure of the two platforms.This move extends reporting alignment into business operations.

4. LKNCY

Luckin Coffee secured nearly $1bn in financing, completed by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund together with Centurium Capital. Middle East SWFs are leaning into China consumption, which is positive for overseas expansion optionality in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.However, this is a secondary sale that does not directly accrete equity, and it raises follow-up questions around Middle East market build-out and a potential main-board return.

5. TSM

Aug consolidated revenue was NT$514.806bn (approx. RMB 109.7bn), +10.1% MoM and +53.3% YoY; Jan–Aug totaled NT$3.3868tn, +39.3% YoY. Strong AI chip demand is accelerating growth since Q2 and reinforces its leadership in advanced nodes.This supports fundamentals across A-share/Taiwan semi supply chains, benefiting 2nm and HBM/CoWoS ecosystem segments.

🐬 Top Gainers

A-shares: Consumer finance, regional banks, power & utilities.

HK: Industrial gases, security & alarm services, oil & gas refining & marketing.

U.S.: Seaport operators, diversified chemicals, healthcare providers.

🐬 Watchlist for Tomorrow

1) U.S. Aug CPI (MoM, SA), U.S. Aug core CPI (MoM, SA), U.S. Aug CPI (YoY, NSA), U.S. Aug core CPI (YoY, NSA), and the preliminary U.S. Sep 1-year inflation expectation.

2) Oracle earnings.

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