Broadcoms higher by 4 . Meantime the gop tax reform bill has been revealed former fdic chair sheila bair will join us to talk about the impact that new plan could have on the Financial Sector. Meantime the housing recovery is, its recovering a bit today after getting hit hard on the news of the mortgage Interest Deduction cap that the new tax plan proposes. We got someone, though, who says this is a major buying opportunity for that sector. And he will explain why coming. We start today with apple. That stock hitting all time highs as the iphone X Hits Stores today josh lipton is at an apple store in, where else, palo alto. With the latest. Josh reporter well, bill, i can tell you the first guy on line here at this store right behind me actually arrived on tuesday night. I also ran to another, someone i met with the iphone 8 launched, he was back here today he was going to give his 8, he told me, to his sister hes going to pick up the iphone x. We asked fans online why they were excited about the x heres what they had to say. Probably the screen the oled screen. Ive been waiting for that for a while. I think the screen, of course. Big screen. Big one reporter now, we also asked some fans about the price point of the iphone x. Heres what they told us its pretty high, but i think its worth it for a new iphone reporter bulls are betting that the iphone x, of course, is going to be a hit. Its going to power this big upgrade cycle in fiscal 18. That has helped drive this stock up 50 so far this year. That means apple is on track for its best yearly performance now since 2010 stock trading higher in todays trade, too, that was on that december guidance with apple ceo tim cook telling me in an interview about that guidance now there will still be a wait, cook telling me, he was referring to the x, but were working as hard as we can to get as many out there as soon as possible we know a lot of people want those in time for the holidays to you can bet were trying to do that. Cook adding that he believes this will be apples best quarter ever guys, back to you. And there we see tim cook at 8 00 a. M. Sharp opening local time that apple store there in pal to alto josh, thank you very much. Lets get more details about the report of the Broadcom Qualcomm deal dom chu, it was the other day they announced they were moving their headquarters to the United States and guessing they heard san diego it lovely. Reporter just yesterday, it really was that quickly. They moved it instead of san diego, theyre talking about, you know, of course, broadcom moving to their headquarters in delaware but i mean, this could be a blockbuster deal and thats why shares of both qualcomm and broadcom are on the move higher as you can see there and this is according to multiple reports at this point this is singaporebased soon to be u. S. Based broadcom looking at a deal to buy fellow Semiconductor Company qualcomm, a u. S. Based company now, thats according to sources familiar the initial reports from bloomberg sent shares of qualcomm up by around 20 at the highs of the day were off of those levels right now, but since then, dow jones has also reported that the same story is in play for them and that it could launch a bid possibly as early as this weekend. And now just in the last half hour, 45 minutes or so, even more headlines coming out of Bloomberg Citing Sources that a deal could be around for 70 a share for qualcomm and its a mix of cash and stock that would put qualcomms value around 103 billion. Now, we have reached out to broadcom for a comment not heard anything back as of right now. A qualcomm spokesperson did tell us, though, they have no comment and for some context, you made mention, according to rich peterson at s p global intelligence, a hypothetical deal of this size would be the biggest global tech deal ever, eclipsing dells deal to buy emc. So a lot of moving parts here, and both stocks i mean, this could be, of course, this is all source reporting citing people familiar in it does if it does come to fruition, it would be a very big blockbuster deal i should also point out, guys, ripple effects throughout the Semiconductor Industry because broadcom is try to buy brocaid also qualcomm, semiconductor, lower on this news intel, a dow component also lower on this news given the competitive land scape all kinds of reverberations through the industry, guys. Im wondering, qualcomm is a different kind of chip business than the bread and butter for caqualcomm right now would there be antitrust what . What does this mean about the squirmishes right now . Were talking about two of the biggest Semiconductor Manufacturers in the world whether it its radio frequency chip sets, semiconductors, computer chips, wireless chips, that sort of thing imagine a deal between two topten players in the Semiconductor Business globally will trigger antitrust scrutiny not just here in the u. S. , but possibly in other jurisdictions like europe and of course asia as well. Thats one thing also like you said, theres pending litigation between qualcomm and apple over royalty payments, sblintellectual prope. Detail with regard to whether or not qualcomm is one of those companies from an intellectual property standpoint that broadcom would want to go after. Thats also a big deal here. Of course, we mentioned it earlier, this is whether or not this is dovetailing off the big announcement from broadcom theyre going to move their headquarters back to the u. S would it ease things with regard to Foreign Ownership of u. S. Companies because it would be a u. S. Andownership of a company so many people are maybe turning their heads and saying, hey, this could be a big deal. I also wonder, it may be about being a u. S. Company but may be about saying to the president , look, were doing something that you like, and you should like this deal, too look at what happened with softbank the first person to show up at trump tower yes, i thought of that, too, but what happens often we you get mergers of this size you get layoffs because there probably are going be some overlaps i mean, what do you think, dom the doj is already potentially raising a red flag about a trkat t time warner, be closely watched by anyone trying to do an industry deal right now. Reporter of course, there are so many dynamics with regard whether these ceos when they make appearances with President Trump are trying to curry favor with the administration, an administration that supposedly is more open and less regulatory focused on certain kinds of deals like this. I would point out, remember, were talking with broadcom trying to buy brocade, thats a committee thats going under sifius right now if a deal like this were to happen, maybe all of this, Brian Sullivan brought this up in the last hour, could all of this jockeying for position with regard to moving broadcoms headquarters per se saen legand to the United States be a precursor to getting the deal passed brocade side of things in play semiconductor still in play on the qualcomm side. There are so many deals that are contingent now upon whether or not something happens in the next three, four days with regard to a deal between broadcom and qualcomm. I mean, i need a flowchart at this point right now to keep track of all of this. I do, too i apologize ahead of time. I figure theyre going let the chips fall where they may. Reporter oh, i see what you did there, though. Thank you very much. Reporter you got it. Dom, thanks. Lets get to our Closing Bell Exchange with major averages higher today. We had that jobs number out this morning. The impact of the markets. Michael is back with us today from hightower hes at post 9 sitting next to torison from Deutsche Bank securities sitting next to steve grasso from stuart frankel, also a cnbc contributor. Theres Rick Santelli in chicago. Good to see you all. Let me just bring up the jobs number i mean, you know, the expectations were high maybe looking for a rebound from the decline we saw the previous month which was revised higher but you know, 2. 61, thats still a decent number for job growth right now, isnt it . Well, from, i mean, we had expected a bigger rebound, but generally speaking, this number is definitely not bad. The big issue is that if you look at the weathersensitive sectors, that i did, of course, get quite a hit last month but the weathersensitive sectors did basically more than pay back what we lost last month. So in that sense, it was okay, but the headline was not as big as the market would have liked to see steve, what about you i mean, was there a big reaction to this report whats the market kind of thinking about this broadcom deal potentially what do you think is on the mind here dow up 18 points. Lets start from the beginning of the day, when you came in this morning, kelly, you had every reason to think, you know what, maybe this market is worth a chance of selling it again, every sell really hasnt taken hold for any longer than a couple of hours, couple of moninutes basically yesterday we got the tax reform deal we also wind up seeing the new fed head we are on the heels of seeing all large cap tech have had reported already so if ever there was a chance where you figure, you know what, let me take a stab here, im fully invested, maybe let me count my chips, throw them off and push it back in and see what happens, and you felt like the marketplace wanted to do that. Couple hours later, the market just starts rallying back. Now, i dont know whether its the tax reform sausagemaking, maybe its this deal that a Little Things are getting incrementally changed around the edges. Nasdaq up about 50 pint 50 p right now. The major part of it was the chip space deal. We whenever you want to get m a activity, it makes you want to buy the next play. The tentacles are long and lasting and going to put the bears on theirmichael, the nasdn a stellar performer this week thanks to the faang stocks of which are pretty much trading at alltime highs do you like that group right now . Are they getting rich for your blood . What are you doing here . We go back to what steve said from the beginning of the day, there were so sm positive things happening. The jobs number was based upon there were so many variables with the hurricane, everything that happened there lets not forget apple just blew out the quarter. I mean, they we were just on the set probably three, four weeks ago wondering if apple was dead are they being innovative enough and now you have lines, thousand people long in times square, in Grand Central station, looking to get new phones, looking to get new product. It keeps coming and coming as far as the faangs and technology and m a thats going on, the positive news is overshadowing anything that happened with the jobs numbers and we also have a real keen focus on what happens now with this jobs bill i mean, lets see what happens lets see what congress decides. Lets see what the senate decides. Lets see how they come back and if this bill gets passed, youre going to bring Corporate Tax rates down to 20 which is where most of the developed countries are. Were almost double that right now. Well see what impact that could have on earnings, too. Rick, i wanted to ask you, trump announced Jerome Powell for his pick at the fed, what should this incoming fed chair, if he gets approved, do about the price of bitcoin right now does he need to lean against over 7,300 the last time i checked or close to that what does the fed do about whats happening there, do you think . Reporter you know, i dont have any idea what the fed should do about it i just know that the contract coming to this exchange by the Fourth Quarter will find many, many investors jumping in to try to short that contract which is very easy in futures thats why i think its going to be such a great success. I dont know to me, i still think i think more like jamie dimon, but it doesnt mean it cant exist, doesnt mean it cant flourish it just means that, you know, when i go to look at the fundamentals or try to pick what reasons are moving the market, its a little difficult. But when i look at our markets, i see a flattening curve and it doesnt matter if a flattening curve means today what it did 10, 20, 25 years ago. It only matters what investors think it means and to that end, the twoyear note is the only yield closing up on the week its up three basis points on the week go out to the long end, its down 30s are down ten basis points on the week. Right. Even the dollar index following the short end here which is very important when you think about the fed, dollar index is right back to 95 where it was last week and it kind of resurged back into its mode again. You know, think about it, youre jay powell youre thinking of continuing Janet Yellens raises. You might raise yourself right into a flatter, maybe a potentially inverted curve and the reasons the long end is dragging, i could give you so many let me think french ten year is at 75 basis points the german ten year is at 35 basis points heres a wild one. The italian ten year is at 175 its very difficult. I hate to get back to that relative value trade but you almost have to consider those variables didnt like the wage component at all in the jobs report today we gave up that yearoveryear 2. 9 last time. Right back to 2. 4. To me, wages are a big issue with regard to how you interpret todays jobs report. All right, gentlemen, we are out of time, but thank you all we appreciate your thoughts on the markets and the economy. Such as they are right now have a good weekend, everybody. Thank you heading to the close, weve got 46 minutes left in the trading session here everybodys higher except the russell 2000 tax effect may be a little bit there, small caps have been struggling relative to the bigger guys. Pay a higher tax rate. True all year. Understandably the nasdaq is the strongest of those major averages with tech bnology still on fire. Home building stocks fell yesterday on the gop proposal to cap the mortgage Interest Deduction. Cut it in half basically could this present a buying opportunity for investors of those Home Builders . Well debate that coming up here this hour. We want to hear from you weve actually been asking you today to tell us about your worst Job Interview story. Let us know via twitter, facebook or over email. Were going to read your comments at the end of the show for a very special reason. Well show you why coming up big thinking in the finger lakes is pushing the new new york forward. Were the number one dairy and apple producers in the eastern United States supported by innovative packaging that extends the shelf life of foods and infrastructure upgrades that help us share our produce with the world. All across new york state, were building the new new york. To grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd. Ny. Gov. We have a news alert on cvs and aetna. Yeah, what ever happened to that is. Another big possible deal Bertha Coombs, what is happening . Yeah, were seeing aetna shares spike on a report from reuters that the two parties are still talking and that the deal price could now be somewhere north of 70 billion which would combine cvs bid in cash and stock. That could reduce the Tax Liability for aetna shareholders according to a reuters source, that deal would value aetna at significantly more than 200 a share and that they are aiming to try to get the deal done by the end of the quarter cvs is on deck to report on monday morning aetna reported earlier this week, but straight off at the top of the call, mark said he was not going to talk about any speck blatiulation about the co being acquired well see what happens monday morning. That Conference Call at 8 30 back to you. Bertha, cvs shareholders continue to be nervous about this one, the shares are down another 1 . Reporter yeah, its gotten a lot tougher. Cvs shares after the news hit last week, their market cap fell to about 70 billion so it really doesnt give them much room really to use their shares as part of the bid. As far as raising cash, they already have about 25 billion, 26 billion on the balance sheet. So thats going to be a big question for analysts, if, indeed, they were to make a bid here, just how much leverage would they have . All right bert bertha, thank you. This is getting good big deals happening. Vertical deals. Alltime highs. Always very interesting very transformative. Yes thats it. Says something about where we are in the psych b cycle, too. Lets get back to the Broadcom Qualcomm deal bring in a smart guy who watches this industry, our own jon fortt also at the nasdaq i mean, youve interviewed the qualcomm ceo quite often. What are your thoughts when broadcom might be going after qualco qualcomm heres my thought, bill this is a literal head scratcher. Im scratching my head a little bit. This would be a ridiculously low price from qualcomms perspective at least i have no clear sense of how qualcomm might look on a deal like this. I did put a call into qualcomm i did not get any official response from the company about that it seems to me like a company thats trying to figure out how to react to his. I just talked to qualcomm ceo on the phone a couple days ago right at the company was reporting its earnings and he had a bunch of other Senior Executives on the line he certainly didnt sound like a guy who was looking to sell his company. Theyre still looking to link up with nxp he was talking about the positive characteristics of this quarter getting through the licensing troubles that they have with apple. One other oem and a number of different geographic jurisdictions around the world this reminds me of the effort to buy adobe back in the late 90s. I think it was 1998. At the time, though, clark had a market cap that i think was a fourth the size of adobes adobe was going through a different sort of tough period in the midst of the Asian Financial crisis and sort of saw this as a slap in the face that cork