Top Pros' Top Picks 9/2/25

Market Minute ⏱️ 9/2/25: Food Co. Splits, Record Gold in Focus

Mike Larson | Editor-in-Chief

After a three-day weekend, stocks are losing ground in September’s first trading session. Gold and silver are on fire, though, while crude oil is also rising. The dollar is popping, while Treasuries are flopping.

The $46 billion mega-merger that created the food conglomerate Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) is being unwound. The stock has underperformed for ages, losing 14.4% in the past three years even as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) gained 69.8%. With consumer attitudes and preferences in the food space shifting, the company decided it had no choice but to split into two publicly traded entities.

KHC, PEP, SPY, GLD, SLV (YTD % Change)

One will focus on selling Heinz ketchup and boxed meals like Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will sell Oscar Mayer hotdogs, Lunchables, and other products. No names have been announced yet. Officials said the transaction should wrap up in H2 2026. It follows other spinoffs, including the 2023 split of Kellogg Co.’s snack and cereal businesses.

Elsewhere in the food and beverage space, Elliott Investment Management has reportedly built a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo. Inc. (PEP). The activist investment firm will agitate for changes at the underperforming company. PepsiCo sells everything from its namesake cola plus Mountain Dew and Gatorade to food products like Lay’s potato chips and Quaker Oats.

Finally, gold traded to a record high in the last 24 hours amid expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, macroeconomic uncertainty, and ongoing buying by official and private investors. Both the yellow metal and silver have doubled in the past three years, and both are trouncing equities in 2025 – with the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) up 31.3% year-to-date and the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) up 37.4%. I wrote about the likelihood of this gold breakout – and the forces fueling it – in this Aug. 22 column.

Schwartzer: What Powell Said and What it MEANS for Investors

• IAU: A Great Vehicle for Profiting from a Falling Dollar
  👉️ TICKERS: GLD, IAU
  Here’s a not-so-fun fact: If you’ve been holding dollars for the past 25 years, you’ve lost almost half your purchasing power. A strategic allocation to gold — through bullion, ETFs, or miners — can help you stay ahead of the erosion. The iShares Gold Trust (IAU) is one option, suggests Sean Brodrick, editor at Weiss Ratings Daily.

• FSLY: A Content Delivery Play for this AI-Fueled Market
  👉️ TICKER: FSLY
  We’ve done well in AI-related tech stocks, and here the question is whether it’s January 1999 or March 2000. Meanwhile, I like the content delivery network company Fastly Inc. (FSLY), writes Michael Murphy, editor of New World Investor.

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😨 📉 It's the stock market's worst month of the year. Rate cut or not, seasonal trends suggest a pullback for equities. (Opening Bell Daily)

⛏️ 🪙 Up 260%, This Stock Is Digging for Gold. SSR Mining Inc. (SSRM) shows strong technical momentum, hitting a new three-year high on Aug. 29. (Barchart)