Apple iPhone 18 goes on sale as U.S. stocks fall on oil, yields and Fed rate hike

CNBC reported that stock futures were flat early Friday after the previous day's rally. The Trump administration was reportedly holding off on new tariffs until after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet next week. Bonds were under pressure, with the 10-year Treasury yield moving closer to 5% again. Oil prices were flat in the morning but pacing for a third straight weekly gain. By the time of CNBC's Investing Club morning meeting, oil had turned higher along with bond yields, and stocks fell. CNBC cited the Iran war and related Middle East skirmishes as continuing to fuel uncertainty about crude supply. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years this week, and the market expects at least one more rate hike before year-end, CNBC reported.

Jim Cramer, whose CNBC Investing Club commentary was included in the reports, said it is tough to have everything work at the same time when rates are moving higher. He said that in an oversold market, based on the S&P Short Range Oscillator, he wants to buy. He wanted to add more Kimberly-Clark on a recent dip. The Club bought BNY on Tuesday, and Cramer said Friday that members who do not own any shares of the bank should start a position, according to CNBC.

Apple's iPhone 18 models went on sale Friday. Cramer went to Apple's flagship 5th Avenue store at dawn and said there were nice crowds but nobody camping out in line. He said the absence of overnight lines was probably because the new foldable iPhone Duo does not go on pre-order until Oct. 16, with availability a week later. Cramer said he bought an iPhone 18 for its long battery life and better camera and plans to buy a Duo as well. He asked new Apple CEO John Ternus, who was at the store, whether the company would have enough Duos to meet demand. Ternus said he thinks so, according to Cramer. Cramer still expects it will be hard to get one right away. Evercore raised its price target on Apple to $380 from $365, saying it believes the launch could be a better-than-expected iPhone refresh cycle, CNBC reported.

CNBC, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that independent security researchers used Anthropic's Claude to hack into OpenAI through an employee's ChatGPT account. Cramer questioned whether independent cybersecurity defenses are tough enough and said that if the company had services from a provider like Okta, the incident should not have happened.

Several analyst actions also moved stocks. Barclays lowered its price target on sell-rated Lennar to $70 from $79 after earnings. The Florida-based homebuilder's shares touched a 52-week low on Thursday before closing up 1.7%. CNBC said the new target implies more than 11% additional downside. Wells Fargo downgraded Netflix to sell from hold and cut its price target to $57 from $80, citing a weak second-half content slate and worrisome engagement trends. Netflix shares were off 3% in the morning. Guggenheim downgraded Accenture to hold from buy, saying channel checks showed no real improvement in demand and pointing to fewer job postings. Accenture earnings on Oct. 1 will test the stock's rally, CNBC reported.

JPMorgan upgraded Tyson Foods to buy from hold, saying headwinds in its chicken business from rising feed costs are now well understood, but also cut its price target to $63 from $65, implying more than 20% upside. Cramer said raising a rating while cutting a price target is inconsistent. BTIG upgraded Etsy to buy from hold with a $90 price target, representing 24% upside, seeing better risk/reward after shares cooled since late August. Cramer said Etsy has finally gotten its act together under new CEO Kruti Patel Goyal. Texas Roadhouse was another consumer stock that rolled over, with beef prices creeping higher; at roughly $167 per share, the stock was well below where the Club sold it earlier this year, according to CNBC. Citi upgraded ticket marketplace StubHub to buy from hold, citing robust third-quarter app downloads and predicting a beat on third-quarter operating profitability. StubHub has been a horrendous performer since last September's blown IPO, down over 70%, but shares were up over 7% premarket, CNBC reported.

CNBC said stocks covered in Friday's rapid fire at the end of the Investing Club video included Meta Platforms, Costco, Berkshire Hathaway, Netflix, Tyson Foods and Nucor. Cramer's Charitable Trust is long Kimberly-Clark, BNY, Apple, Meta and Costco, according to CNBC.