Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo enter the big food shakeup zone: Opening Bid top takeaway Brian SozziSeptember 2, 2025 at 11:44 PM Summer may unofficially be over, but a few fireworks are still poised to pop off on Wall Street. And they are wasting no time lighting up markets after the Labor Day weekend.
- - Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo enter the big food shake-up zone: Opening Bid top takeaway
Brian SozziSeptember 2, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Summer may unofficially be over, but a few fireworks are still poised to pop off on Wall Street.
And they are wasting no time lighting up markets after the Labor Day weekend.
A Federal appeals court ruled Friday against the Trump administration's tariffs. But it left them in place until Oct. 14, allowing the White House time to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
"This tariff saga continues with even more uncertainty, as we now move from speculating on "who, what, when, where, and how" related to tariffs to an even more uncertain "whether," Citi retail analyst Paul Lejuez said.
Here's what else the Opening Bid team is watching.
Around the horn -
Challenging the Trump tariff. How the tariff uncertainty is priced into stocks is now in focus. "If the Supreme Court agrees to review the case, this could leave the tariffs in place until as late as June 2026. Legal uncertainty could lead the Trump administration to shift tariffs to other statutory bases but, however the Supreme Court ultimately rules, the president will retain substantial authority to impose tariffs," Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said.
Positioning for an easier, perhaps less independent Federal Reserve. Gold prices have hit fresh records above $3,500 an ounce. The price has now doubled since the start of 2023. The latest push reflects investors bracing for a steady drumbeat of rate cuts from the Fed, which historically is bullish for gold. Any weakening in the Fed's independence — amid challenges from Trump — is also viewed as bullish for gold.
When the CEO misbehaves. The 2025 string of misbehaving CEOs rages on. Nestlé (NESN.SW) over the weekend booted CEO Laurent Freixe over an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. The CEO of alcohol giant Suntory Tak Niinami reportedly resigned today as his home was searched for illegal supplements.
Apple gets nibbles. Somewhat under the radar, Apple's (AAPL) stock is rallying into the expected Sept. 9 unveiling of the latest iPhone. Shares are up about 10% in the past month. Citi analyst Atif Malik says he's expecting a strong replacement cycle for the upcoming iPhone, given that almost 50% of iPhone users are on the iPhone 14 or earlier models. Consumers will need a new model to take advantage of the many AI features Apple is working on, Malik notes.
Stock analysis: Liberty Media
Media mogul and Liberty Media (LLYVK) chair John Malone still sees more upside in Formula One after eight years of ownership.
Liberty Media introduced Formula One racing to a US-based audience through races held in Miami and Las Vegas and branched out to living rooms and smart devices courtesy of F1 TV and direct-to-consumer streaming options.
The Netflix series "Drive to Survive" also cemented its cult popularity on this side of the Atlantic. Apple's megahit "F1" movie this year only added to the sport's allure.
"Look, it's a public company. If somebody gets carried away and they want to buy it, and they're willing to pay more for it than the board thinks that they can deliver to the shareholders, then we would sell it. I mean, that's the bottom line," Malone told me in a new Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast drop.
Industry chat: Old food
The push to reengineer legacy food companies has been the playbook all year long. Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) said recently it would split its Keurig coffee business from its beverage business.
Now, a decade after their much-hyped merger, Kraft Heinz (KHC) said it would split into two public companies. One will focus on shelf-stable meals like mac and cheese. The other will put attention to Lunchables and packaged cheese.
This merger has been a disaster from the start, leading the stock price to tank 60% since 2015.
"It really has been a thorough review of what essentially was the premise that we believe that there was unlocked value in the company that wasn't truly being assessed appropriately outside," Kraft Heinz CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera told me in an interview today. "And I think at the same time, we recognize that the complexity of the business was actually leading to not driving the type of performance that we wanted to get to."
Meanwhile, feared activist investor Elliott Management has taken a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo (PEP) and will agitate for changes to improve sagging earnings growth. PepsiCo has been struggling in recent quarters amid sticky inflation and shifting consumer health trends.
A source familiar with Elliott's thinking told me the stock is at least 50% undervalued at current levels after years of operational miscues, one of them being neglecting the core soda business.
Elliott is pushing PepsiCo to refranchise its North American bottling operations and review the cost structure of the snack business, according to a slide deck sent to PepsiCo by the firm.
A spokesperson for PepsiCo didn't return Yahoo Finance's request for comment.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email [email protected].
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