John Ternus' vision for Apple is coming into view, and we like what we see

Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Stocks are cutting their losses in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session, stocks were facing heavier selling pressure, despite oil prices falling slightly. The reason was that the bond market sell-off picked steam with the 10-year Treasury yield rising near 5.3% and the 30-year U.S. government bond yield crossing 5.6% and hitting its highest level since 2002. However, after U.S. oil benchmark WTI crude dipped below $90 a barrel, the selling in bonds eased — and that invited some buyers in stocks. After being down almost 0.4% at 2 p.m. ET, the S & P 500 clawed back near the flatline. Another thing inspiring the buyers on Tuesday afternoon might be comments from New York Fed President John Williams. According to Reuters , Williams said that after the central bank's September hike, he sees "no need for urgency" in the Fed's next move. Nevertheless, he said he expects one more hike by year-end may be appropriate "if the economy evolves in a manner broadly consistent with my forecast." Odds of a rate hike at the Fed's late October meeting have fallen fast; it's basically a 50-50 coin flip now, according to the CME's FedWatch tool , down from 71% a day earlier. However, the market is still overwhelmingly pricing in at least one hike by year-end, which would be consistent with what Williams said Tuesday. The Fed's final meeting of the year is in December. Putting aside Williams' comments, we still must be mindful of the moves in the bond market. As we've repeatedly pointed out, the stock market is currently hostage to the bond market. Rising interest rates can be a headwind for stocks for a couple of reasons. First, higher rates can slow economic activity by raising borrowing costs, potentially weighing on future earnings. From a valuation standpoint, investors determine what a stock is worth today, in part, by discounting its expected future earnings and cash flows. When interest rates rise, those future earnings and cash flows are discounted at a higher rate, lowering their present value. This is a dynamic we've previously explained , and it remains true in this current market. Negative investor sentiment and oversold conditions are the right setup for a rebound, but the timing of a bounce remains elusive because bond yields need to come down. The S & P Oscillator, our trusted momentum indicator, closed on Monday at minus 5.37%. Anything below minus 4% indicates the market is oversold. The market has been trading in oversold territory since Sept. 10. It's been a month since John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as CEO of Apple , and we're starting to get a sense of where he wants to take the company next. According to Bloomberg News , some of Ternus' early initiatives are to reduce layers of management that separated engineers from senior executives, and to accelerate the speed of product development. It appears Ternus wants Apple to move faster and launch new products more frequently. Keep in mind, Ternus is an engineer by trade, having previously served as Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering before becoming CEO. Developing new products and features is something he enjoys. This vision may be slightly different from Tim Cook's, whose illustrious tenure will be most remembered for the incredible work he did building a vast and sprawling supply chain; taking smartphone market share from competitors around the world; adding an entirely new Wearables category; and building out the company's profit engine, the Services segment. It makes sense for Apple to work smarter and faster during a time in which Meta Platforms , Alphabet , OpenAI, and others are coming out with hardware devices designed for AI applications. The Apple flywheel works best when it sells new products to its massive installed base while generating additional Services revenue attached to those products. Some on Wall Street also think the popularity of Meta's Muse agent underscores the need for the software side of the Apple house to also move faster. In a note to clients Tuesday morning, before the Bloomberg story hit the tape, Bank of America wrote: "Apple ships major software releases annually, while agents improve daily. Agents are accelerating innovation cycles, and Apple needs to ensure that its teams around services, silicon, payments, privacy etc. are integrating with Siri AI and moving at a pace to match innovation at competitors in the race to capture the economics of user intent." There are no major earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday. Before the opening bell on Wednesday, we'll see earnings from Conagra , Jabil , and FactSet Research Systems . On the data side, we'll see the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, the August Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index, as well as the final estimate for second quarter GDP. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) 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