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Market Data Table

Breakfast News: Apple's Next Act Has an AI Problem

September 1, 2026

Monday's Markets
S&P 500 7,686 (-0.33%)
Nasdaq 26,371 (-0.12%)
Dow 53,186 (-0.70%)
Bitcoin $79,027 (+0.22%)

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1. Apple's Cook Era Ends: Now What?

Chart showing Apple's free cash flow rise and fall over the past 10 years to where it currently sits at $32 billion.

Tim Cook stepped down as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO yesterday after 15 years. He's handing the job to longtime hardware chief John Ternus and becomes executive chair. Under his watch, Apple's stock surged -- and its market weight in major indexes swelled. But it's been a turbulent ride lately, as heightened political and regulatory pressure collided with a stumble on artificial intelligence just as rivals raced ahead.

The legacy is in the numbers: Apple stock is up more than 2,000% since 2011, and it has returned over $1 trillion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. iPhone shipments have topped 3.1 billion units, and paid subscriptions across services have climbed to 1.5 billion. How do we sum it up? Fool analyst Jim Gillies believes "in arguably the best measure of CEO effectiveness -- shareholder returns -- Cook has been a better CEO for Apple than Jobs ever was."
Ternus inherits the AI gap Cook never closed: Apple sat out the AI infrastructure race and now leans on OpenAI and Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google for its own intelligence features. It still depends heavily on Chinese manufacturing, just as political and regulatory scrutiny mounts.

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2. Amazon Sued Over Secret Ad Fee Allegations

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares fell 2.5% Monday as the company faces advertising lawsuits. They allege it secretly rigged ad auctions starting in 2019. Advertising has become one of Amazon's most profitable engines. A court could force changes to how Amazon prices those auctions. Regulators say the business already generates tens of billions in disputed revenue. We'd rather see clean growth than growth that draws lawsuits. One suit alone doesn't break the thesis.

The mechanism, allegedly: Amazon inserted itself into auctions as an undisclosed bidder, in a move internal documents reportedly called a "soft reserve." That pushed pay-per-click costs up as much as 50% on peak shopping days. Sellers thought they were paying the minimum needed to win. Regulators say more than 1 million sellers and brands paid more instead. Amazon disputes this. It says the rules were disclosed, standard across the industry, and that the changes saved advertisers billions.
This is Amazon's third major legal fight in recent years: It follows a $2.5 billion Prime settlement last September. A separate monopoly case is still headed to trial in 2027.

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3. Nasdaq Snaps Back in August After Two Monthly Dips

The Nasdaq rebounded 3.9% in August, reversing much of its declines in June and July, as strong tech earnings fueled the rally. The S&P 500 rose 2.6% over the same period. Ahead of this month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the CME FedWatch tool shows markets are now pricing in a 66% chance of a hike. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were largely unchanged in early trading today.

Tech stocks lead August's big movers: The biggest individual stock gains in August included a 52% jump from Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR), Strategy's (NASDAQ:MSTR) 43% jump, a 33% rebound for SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), and a 28% spike from Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE). Lumentum is recommended by Team Hidden Gems.
Stocks slip as oil jumps on Mideast fears: Monday brought a reversal, however. S&P 500 stocks fell 0.33%, and Nasdaq tech stocks slipped 0.12%. Oil spiked, with WTI crude oil jumping 2.8% to $85.76 per barrel after tensions in the Middle East were revived, rattling investors.

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4. PANW, MDB, GTLB: High-Stakes Earnings Loom Later

Three popular tech stocks hit the tape today, all reporting after today's market close. The first two are longtime recommendations in Rule Breakers.

Palo Alto (NASDAQ:PANW) has the steepest bar to clear. Analysts are looking for roughly 32% revenue growth, its fastest acceleration in years. It's fueled by demand for AI security tools and its first full quarter including CyberArk. The catch: The stock's run-up has already priced in a lot of that good news. So, even a solid beat may not be enough if margins or integration costs disappoint.
MongoDB's (NASDAQ:MDB) challenge is expectations fatigue. After a string of blowout quarters, investors are now probing whether enterprise demand for its Atlas database platform can keep pace with the AI narrative. The company's bottom line is still in the red.
GitLab (NASDAQ:GTLB) is the smallest and most volatile of the three. The stock has surged roughly 26% over the past month. So, any miss on bookings growth or its path to profitability could trigger an outsize swing in either direction.

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5. Snowflake: Holding When It Hurts

We've recommended Snowflake (NASDAQ:SNOW) around 20 times across our services. The first call is the one that didn't work out. It came in Rule Breakers in May 2021 at $245.15 (Hidden Gems recommended in August that same year, too, at $279.45). Five years later, it's up just 29%, well behind the S&P 500. Then the stock plunged. Investors doubted the digital transformation boom would last. We recommended it again anyway.

Snowflake holds the data AI agents need: An agent without it is generic. Its Cortex Code agent lets customers build pipelines and agents on that data far faster than before. Every project pulls more work onto the core platform, which is why product revenue growth accelerated to 34% year over year last quarter.
The later calls are where the returns came from: Hidden Gems recommended Snowflake at $138.24 in June 2022, near the bottom. That call is up about 128%, 34 percentage points ahead of the S&P 500. Rule Breakers came back to the stock a year later and is up about 82%, level with the index since.

Snowflake reports its earnings after tomorrow's closing bell. CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy on the last quarter: "AI is compounding Snowflake's advantage in data." While still a buy in both HG and RB, neither team has recommended Snowflake since April 2024.

Team Hidden Gems has a 5-year price prediction of $567.39.

Team Rule Breakers has a 5-year price prediction of $555.

Snowflake trades around $330 today.

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6. Your Take

Which company's current value would be most immediately hurt if its CEO were to step away, and why?

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

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