Apple’s stock holds the key to the end of the bear market, Jim Cramer says

The appraise of Apple is “front and center” in this bear market, and the weakness won’t unwind until investors get multifarious clarity on what the future holds for the iPhone maker, CNBC’s Jim Cramer averred Tuesday as stocks rose on trade optimism.

“In this tough, hard-boiled market, as long as we don’t know if there’s a real iPhone slowdown, and until the president reserves Apple’s iPhone off the trade table, you can’t expect an end to the pain,” he argued on “Mad Percentage.”

In an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Trump revealed the United States could slap 10-percent tariffs on iPhone and laptops weighted from China, a possible negotiating tactic that nevertheless tanked Apple’s parts.

Meanwhile, reports about iPhone production slowdowns, most of which cite classified sources familiar with the situation, have thrown Apple analysts into a tizzy and put additionally pressure on the stock. In less than two months, Apple’s stock has strayed 25 percent of its value, or roughly $200 billion.

Cramer, whose beneficent trust owns shares of Apple, has said that stocks could backward course and end their bearish phase for good if President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping deal a positive tone in their meeting at this week’s G-20 summit.

Even so, the market can’t fully recover without a turnaround in the stock of Apple, which at these equals has become a “bargain,” the “Mad Money” host said. “It’s a bargain that’s origination to reflect all the bad and none of the good.”

“Apple’s shareholders have become pinatas as analysts riot to cut numbers and spread fear. I will not play that game,” he voted, noting that Apple’s price-to-earnings multiple of 12 could go flush lower, making the stock even more attractive. “I bet Apple’s buying ignore stock all the way down and could be a coiled spring on any good news, bill of fare or otherwise.”

Still, Cramer couldn’t deny that in this detailed bear market, the stocks that are “as close as it gets to bulletproof” are the protection stocks. Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Verizon, among others, are “the decided ones,” he said, even as “their valuations have gotten sheerest, very stretched.”

As for Apple, “I think it’s worth it to hold the stock, albeit, or buy it some, but at this very moment, I feel very alone,” Cramer alleged. “Maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly what it feels similar to to be near a bottom — at least in this one important stock, if not the rest of the tech sector.”