Meta Climbs 4% on Muse Retention Data; Snap Rises 3%, Reddit Falls 3%

Fresh third-party data on Muse, the AI agent from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction), is lifting shares of the social media giant and splitting its category. Meta Platforms stock is at $744.72, up 4% in afternoon trading. Meanwhile, Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP) shares are at $6.45, up 3%, a gain just shy of Meta Platforms’.

At the same time, Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) stock trades at $155.23, down 3%, moving against both of its advertising-driven peers. Reddit stock is down 32% so far this year.

For broad-market context, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is at $777.88, down 0.1%. The Global X Social Media ETF (NASDAQ:SOCL) is at $44.18, down 0.7%, slipping even as Meta Platforms stock rises.

Muse Retention Data Lifts Meta

Analysis from Sensor Tower found that Muse brings back 73% of new users the day after they install it. That early rate tops the comparable figure for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, although ChatGPT pulls ahead between the eighth and ninth day. Separate data from Similarweb put Muse daily active users at 2.182 million on October 5, with usage rising through the month.

A challenge has emerged alongside that growth. Major shopping websites have moved to block AI agents from browsing their pages or completing purchases, which limits the tasks Muse can finish for its users. An agent designed to act on a person’s behalf loses usefulness each time a large destination closes its doors to it.

Meta’s Bull and Bear Cases Share One Data Set

The bull case for Meta Platforms holds that a product launched in September is already keeping new users at a rate that beats the category leader on day one, and Meta Platforms stock is being repriced on that evidence. That same retention data, though, shows users drifting away within days. Shutouts from a growing number of websites add a second problem, since each block limits what the agent can do.

At a forward P/E ratio of 22x, Meta Platforms stock remains below its 52-week high of $779.82. That leaves the rally resting on whether early adoption turns into lasting engagement, a question a few weeks of data can’t settle.

Reddit Moves Apart From Its Category

Reddit stock is falling while the other two social media stocks rise, and no company announcement explains the decline, but since all three depend on advertising, the split suggests Reddit’s weakness is being read as specific to Reddit.

Fund weightings show how that divergence lands in the SOCL sector ETF. Reddit accounts for 8.5% of Global X fund’s net assets. That compares against Meta Platforms’ 8.7% weight, so two holdings of nearly equal size are pulling in opposite directions.

What to Watch Next

Meta Platforms’ next test is whether Muse keeps adding daily users as more websites shut agents out. Steady gains could ease the skeptics’ concerns, and a stall could increase them.

Reddit stock’s path is muddier, since no company explanation comes with its slide. As for SNAP stock, there’s an earnings event coming November 4 and this could cause share-price volatility to ramp up. Hence, it’s wise to size one’s positions with care until the social-media sector trade settles.

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