Good morning, investors. The US-Iran conflict is once again rattling markets and the latest exchange of attacks are pushing global bond yields to multi-month highs.

All that and Tim Cook is still the talk of Wall Street right now.

Investors paid 15 times earnings for Apple stock the day Tim Cook became CEO in 2011 and they pay 36 times today.

It’s not just new iPhones that have convinced investors to pay a premium. Under Cook, buybacks shrank the share count by more than 40% while the multiple more than doubled. 

That means new CEO John Ternus has to find new levers to grow the business.

Apple compounded revenue at 7.8% a year from fiscal 2012 to fiscal 2025, going from $156 billion to $416.2 billion. Yet, in part thanks to share buybacks, the stock compounded at more than 23% a year. 

That also helps explain why Apple’s earnings are far steadier today compared to 2011. Services alone generated $109.2 billion last year, more than what Apple sold across its entire business before Cook took over.

Just as investors doubted Cook taking the reins from Steve Jobs, Wall Street seems cautious on whether Ternus is up to the task.

The average 12-month price target sits near $324 a share, almost exactly where the stock trades today. 

Ternus — who has been billed as a product guy — holds his first product event as CEO on September 9. He joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has overseen hardware engineering since 2021. 

Cook was an operations man who supercharged the stock while succeeding a visionary.

Ternus is an engineer, and that might be just the profile to lead a company in the AI era.

🏦 Fed Governor Barr said the Fed should hike rates if inflation does not moderate. His prepared remarks echoed Warsh's Jackson Hole speech and helped push September hike odds to 66% versus roughly 30% two weeks ago. (Yahoo Finance)

🎯 Canada Prime Minister Carney said trade talks can resume once US officials stop "throwing shade." Negotiations have stalled since August last week after Trump imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian imports. Ottawa has retaliatory duties set to hit Monday. (Bloomberg)

📊 July JOLTS showed 7.3 million job openings. Hiring slipped to 5.1 million while layoffs edged down to 1.7 million and the quits rate stuck at 1.9% ahead of Friday's payrolls data. (Yahoo Finance)

🗓 September 2, 1998: John Meriwether sent his infamous letter to Long-Term Capital Management investors admitting the fund had lost 44% of its capital in August, triggering the hedge fund's spiral toward a Fed-orchestrated $3.6 billion Wall Street bailout.

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