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Market Data Table

Breakfast News: Will AI Buy Your Cheerios Next?

September 24, 2026

Wednesday's Markets
S&P 500 7,706 (-0.75%)
Nasdaq 26,936 (-1.13%)
Dow 51,512 (-0.68%)
Bitcoin $84,425 (-2.24%)

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1. Outsourcing the Cereal Aisle to AI Agents

Chart showing Meta's net profit margin over the past decade.

Andy Cross, TMF chief investment officer

My daughter and I went shopping for cereal the other day. We came back home with our typical box of Honey Nut Cheerios. But she also found some Cinnamon Toast Crunch that she begged me to get. What can I say? I caved. My loss is General Mills' (NYSE:GIS) gain, which makes both Cheerios and "CTC," as it's now called in my household.

The cereal, snack, and baking company reported a drop in Q1 sales this week as it works through a turnaround. But organic sales were flat. That's still the right direction for the 160-year-old company facing finicky consumers, higher input costs, and ample competition.

But what caught me most from the conference call was a comment on agentic shopping from its Chief Operating Officer (COO), Dana McNabb, in response to an analyst question.

"We know just in this last month alone that 40% of consumers used an AI tool to make a purchase in food. And right now, I mean, who knows, but our early estimates are that Agentic commerce will be about 20% of food sales by 2030."

Anyone who read up on the Muse Agent release from Meta (NASDAQ:META) this week realizes that McNabb's 20% might be an understatement. I'll be keenly interested to see how much agentic shopping (in either true or somewhat true fashion) is done this holiday season. Undoubtedly, still a small percentage of the overall.

But by next Christmas? Agentic shopping might not be so novel, then. Either when shopping for that perfect gift, or trying to get just the right kind of cereal a picky 11-year-old will eat. If the Cross household agent can accomplish that, it will be worth every penny of tokens I have to pay.

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2. Don't Sleep on Meta's Latest Ray-Ban Tech

Meta is making a bigger bet that the next interface for artificial intelligence (AI) may not be a smartphone screen. At its Sept. 23 Connect event, the company expanded its AI-glasses lineup and put its Muse AI agent at the center of everything it showed. Its new camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses start at $349, while the third-generation camera glasses start at $449. Then came the Charm, a pocket-sized device built to give users direct access to Muse without a smartphone.

Reaching users beyond its social apps: For investors, the glasses matter less than what they can unlock. Meta could build a consumer computing platform around AI for a direct line to users beyond Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Since paid Muse tiers already run $20 to $100 per month, it could well become a new revenue engine through subscriptions and AI-driven transactions.
No moat here yet, only adoption: Remember, none of this is proven. The bet pays off only if consumers get comfortable talking to AI through devices Meta controls. If they do, Meta could capture a new layer of the digital economy.

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3. Trump-Xi Handshake Buys More Time

When Chinese Leader Xi Jinping landed at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump walked right out onto the tarmac to shake hands. We haven't seen a foreign head of state get that kind of welcome in nearly six decades.

Symbolism? Sure. But Wall Street was watching the fine print. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent quickly used the moment to push the U.S.-China tariff truce deadline from November to Jan. 10. The truce keeps tariffs lower for longer and rare earths flowing from China.

A short leash, by design: Bessent made it clear that a rolling two-month extension signals stability, but Beijing still needs to "fulfill more deliverables." The truce buys time but doesn't resolve the underlying trade relationship. For long-term investors, this matters less as a single event and more as a reflection of where U.S.-China relations are heading.
The chip fight goes quiet: Tech bulls were perhaps the most surprised as semiconductor export controls were left off the summit's agenda. Bessent and Vice Premier He Lifeng instead focused on building AI alert systems to flag hacking incidents, especially those related to national security. At least that quietly takes an export shock risk off the table for chipmakers, for now.

See which chip stock just hit $1 trillion

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4. Why Eli Lilly Just Bet $100 Million on Chinese Biotech

Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) is cutting a $100 million check up front for a five-target drug discovery deal with China's InnoCare Pharma. Milestones and royalties could add up to $3.25 billion if any of the undisclosed targets pan out. InnoCare will run its own discovery platform against targets the two companies describe only as unmet medical needs.

Lilly is shopping with its GLP-1 fortune: The Team Rule Breakers recommendation has spent 2026 buying biotech assets on the back of its weight loss drug windfall. It's done this through multibillion-dollar takeouts and smaller licensing deals alike. InnoCare's pipeline already drew a $2 billion licensing deal with Zenas BioPharma, proof that Western drugmakers see real value in its discovery work.
What investors need to know: $100 million is immaterial against Lilly's GLP-1 cash flows. This deal is more of a high-upside, low-risk pipeline optionality. Investors should keep an eye out for which disease areas Lilly targets and whether any of the programs advance to clinical trials. That will be the first real test of whether this deal pays off for the company in the long run.

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5. Is Costco a Rule Breaker After All?

Team Rule Breakers

Tom Gardner first recommended Costco (NASDAQ:COST) in Stock Advisor back in 2002 based on his Hidden Gems investing philosophy. Shares have returned over 3,100% since, outperforming the market handily. So, why has Costco never made it into the Rule Breakers universe?

Costco is the top dog in the warehouse club space: It generated more than $290 billion in revenue over the last 12 months across 939 warehouses. Its next largest competitor, Walmart's (NASDAQ:WMT) Sam's Club, chalked up "just" $93 billion in fiscal 2026.
Talk about strong leadership: Co-founder and former CEO of Costco, Jim Sinegal, set a culture that carries on to this day. Craig Jelinek (who took over for Sinegal) and current CEO Ron Vachris were long-time Costco veterans when they took over, and both had seen the value in what Sinegal instilled. That culture shows up in the membership renewal rates. The company recently reported 92.2% in the U.S. and Canada and 89.7% worldwide.

Costco is in a great position to continue dominating the warehouse club space. Yes, there is competition in Sam's Club and the much smaller BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ), but those renewal rates make a strong case for a company doing something very right. Maybe Costco is a Rule Breaker after all.

Team Rule Breakers has a 5-year price prediction of $1,254.80. Shares trade around $905 today.

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6. Today's Question

What's your take on agentic shopping? Excited, terrified, or already using it?

Discuss with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying!