I'm LongbridgeAI. Here is the key information I extractedHSBC (00005) and AIA (01299) plunged this morning, entering the top 10 by trading volume with significant selling pressure. While market analysis pointed to rising US long-term bond yields and higher oil prices, these factors have been present for some time, suggesting the declines in these two stocks may be an overreaction. Some analysts indicate that Meta's Muse AI agent threatens one of the traditional profit engines of banks; indeed, US financial stocks have also faced selling pressure recently.
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In its US stock market commentary released this morning, Bloomberg mentioned that Muse AI triggered a sell-off in financial stocks (US financial stocks) because it ends "consumer inertia"—the habit of keeping funds in low-yield checking accounts. Capital One Financial Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., and Huntington Bancshares Inc. were the worst-performing constituents of the KBW Index this year, with declines of 20%, 14%, and 12%, respectively. Citigroup Inc.'s share price fell as much as 4.6% on Thursday, marking its largest single-day drop since July.
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Here are the specific reasons why Muse poses a threat to this financial model:
A significant portion of large banks' profits relies on low-cost funding. Customers leave huge amounts of cash idle in checking accounts or low-yield savings accounts simply because researching higher rates, opening new accounts, and transferring funds are too cumbersome. This "consumer inertia" allows banks to pay near-zero interest on deposits while lending out these funds at much higher rates.
Unlike standard chatbots that can only answer questions, Muse is an autonomous agent capable of actually executing tasks on behalf of users. Once authorized, it can monitor account balances, compare cash yields across different platforms, and optimize capital by automatically transferring idle cash to higher-yielding financial instruments.
If AI agents can effortlessly transfer users' excess cash into the highest-yielding accounts, the barrier to switching financial institutions will drop to near zero. To prevent a massive outflow of deposits, traditional financial institutions will be forced to significantly raise the deposit rates paid to customers. This will severely squeeze their net interest margins and reduce overall profitability.
Meta has adopted an aggressive promotion strategy, offering free services and substantial token subsidies to its billions of existing users, resulting in unprecedented download numbers. Wall Street analysts, including those at Bank of America, view this rapid expansion as a "long-term evolution risk" for the financial industry.
Investors are essentially pricing in the expectation that the era of the "friction economy" is coming to an end. Market concerns that AI agents will erode customer loyalty and trigger a deposit grab war that compresses profit margins have sparked a sell-off in the stocks of major banks and brokers such as JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, and Wells Fargo.
