Mortgage Rates Hit Highest Level in 2 Years, Meta Tests ‘Human Concierge’ for Muse
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What’s the overall market outlook for stocks, bonds, and oil today?
Public.com presents the rundown, your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zayd Mani, and today is Wednesday, September 23rd. In today's episode, we'll break down why mortgage rates are better. Back above 7% and why some home buyers are turning to riskier adjustable rate mortgages. We'll also tell you why Meta's new AI agent might have secretly had a human making phone calls for you. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why Apple might owe you some money because of Siri. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Yesterday was another interesting day for the stock market. The SP 500 was literally flat on the day, technically down six hundredths of a point. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq did squeeze out a 0.5% gain for another record close.
And once again, AI was driving a lot of the action, not just the winners, but also the losers. The financial sector was the worst performing sector in the SP yesterday, dropping 2%. Big names like Charles Schwab fell 6%, while JP Morgan and Bank of America fell 3%. And the reason for that is AI. The fear now is that AI agents like Meta's Muse could disrupt everything from wealth management and insurance to payments and banking. Now, yesterday I mentioned that people were using MetaMuse to find cheaper car insurance. Well, Meta is leaning into that. The Meta team is promoting something called the Muse Money Challenge. Challenge telling people to have Muse hunt for savings on their streaming services and car insurance and gym membership.
Why have 30‑year mortgage rates risen above 7% and how does it affect home‑buyer affordability?
So if in the future we live in a world where personal AI agents are constantly moving your money around and comparing financial products and making sure every dollar is optimized, that could mean fewer fees for advisors and financial firms. So the market is starting to ask these questions now and trying to figure out which business model might get disrupted from personal. AI agents. And this is what the market does, right? At the start of the year, the market thought software companies were cooked because of AI and vibe coding. And now it seems like the market thinks other sectors could be disrupted by AI, like financials. I personally don't think that banks are going to be that impacted, but uh I guess we'll see.
Now, zooming out, we continue to get some relief on the macro side of things. Oil prices fell for the fifth straight session on Tuesday. WTI crude closed at $94. A barrel and Brent finished just under one hundred dollars a barrel. On top of that, Saudi Arabia also restarted their east-west pipeline, which gives the country another route to move oil around the Strait of Hormuz. Although Reuters did report that getting the pipeline completely back up to full capacity could take several weeks. But yeah, the drop in oil prices is obviously good news for inflation. But you know, the bond market is still cautious here. The 10-year treasury yield finished Tuesday at 4.966%, basically sitting right below the 5% level we've been talking about.
about. So we'll continue to keep an eye on the bond market along with oil and stocks and everything else happening. So definitely get subscribed to the podcast if you haven't already and tune in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines, starting with mortgage rates.
What’s driving the surge in adjustable‑rate mortgages and what risks do they carry?
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage in the US has jumped to 7.12% as of last week. This is according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is the highest mortgage rate since May of 2024. And this is why we keep talking about the bond markets so much lately. Mortgage rates track long-term treasury yields, especially the tenure. And as those yields have climbed over the last few months because investors are worried about inflation, government borrowing, and obviously higher oil prices from the Iran war, mortgage rates have also risen as well. Mortgage rates now are a full percentage point higher since the Iran War began back in February. And you know, higher mortgage rates reduce purchasing power for home buyers.
Like, for example, if you're trying to buy a house and
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What’s the overall market outlook for stocks, bonds, and oil today?
0:00–1:37
2
Why have 30‑year mortgage rates risen above 7% and how does it affect home‑buyer affordability?
1:37–3:08
3
What’s driving the surge in adjustable‑rate mortgages and what risks do they carry?
3:08–4:37
4
How is Meta’s Muse AI using a human “concierge” to make phone calls and what privacy concerns does this raise?
4:37–6:26
5
What impact could the human‑in‑the‑loop feature have on Muse’s future adoption by businesses?
6:26–7:54
6
Why did IonQ’s quantum error‑correction breakthrough send its stock soaring?
7:54–9:06
7
How are high mortgage rates hurting home‑builder KB Home’s earnings and stock price?
9:06–10:48
8
Why is Apple paying $250 million to iPhone owners over the delayed Siri/Apple Intelligence rollout?
10:48–11:26
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Rundown
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