The president did sign an executive order that could lead to new sanctions, the North Koreans threatening to test a hydrogeneral bomb over the Pacific Hydrogen bomb over the pacific. Ralph peters is here, hell give us the threat assessment on north korea. Plus a congressman from North Carolina with a preview of next weeks house go pucks tax re gop tax reform rollout to. Health care and Technology Stocks have been dragging markets a little bit lower, if emphasis on a little bit. Less than an hour to go until the closing bell. Im Connell Mcshane in for liz claman. Lets start the countdown. Connell want to go to some breaking news thats coming in as we get started this afternoon from President Trumps twitter account. This is businessrelated, a bit of a shoutout to American Airlines. Its chairman and ceo, theres the tweet thank you to doug parker and the American Airlines for all the help youve given to the u. S. With hurricane flights. Fantastic job, says the president. So calling out an american company, an american airline. Theres the stock today up by 89 cent, it gets us into the broader conversation about the markets. The dow and the s p 500, we mentioned the dow being down. Its only a little bit lower, all Things Considered here, not very much at all, 30 points. The s p 500 is basically flat. You know, the russell 2000 has been the best of the bunch today. Only onehalf of 1 to the gain there, but that small cap benchmark, the russell, on track for what could be a record close. And if it does hit a record, it would be its 16th of the year. Now, for the week both the dow and the russell are on pace for a second straight weekly gain. Sonot so much for the others. Lets look at some individual movers, sprint tmobile have been trading higher. Reports that the two companies are closer to agreeing on terms for a merger, so we see gains from both of those stocks and healthy gains today. And some major breakthrough in the possible deal between what are the third and fourth largest carriers in the United States. Sprint and tmobile. One group kind of bucking somewhat of a lower trend today on wall street, this makes sense, the defense stocks, alltime highs for a number of the defense and defenserelated stocks with the war of words escalating between President Trump and kim jong un. The United States and north korea. Now with that we kind of all woke up this morning with these threats from north korea that they would test a Hydrogen Bomb over the pacific ocean. What would President Trumps response be . To fox news strategic analyst, Lieutenant Colonel ralph peters. Always good to see you, thank you for coming on. I know im starting kind of worse case and working back, but if they do go forward with that test, how would the president respond . Well, i dont think anybody really knows because when youre presented with it, suddenly things can look different. But an atmospheric Hydrogen Bomb test anywhere in the pacific would be an order of magnitude greater threat wise. It would tell us that their program has really leapt forward. Of course, depending on where it was detonated, youve got possible radiation in the atmosphere carried by the winds, depending on where its detonated, the possibility of emp, electromagnetic pulse, doing a great deal of damage. Does it fly over japan . This is that would be as close to an overt act of war as anything weve yet seen connell right. Would it need one of those variables, flying over japan, getting close to a u. S. Territory to be a, quote, act of war, or is it just the act of testing a Hydrogen Bomb in and of itself enough to say its an act of war . Unless it has a direct impact, influence traceable to the bomb, its not technically an act of war. Flying if you fly armed fighter planes over japans air space, its an act of war, but were vague on missiles. If a missile outside of the earths atmosphere goes over, we dont really know. North korea plays this very well under the terms of international law, but they need to be careful because the North Koreans have been used to bluffing us and getting their way and us never responding connell right. Its last quarter century. And now youve got a president who is unpredictable, just as your first question to me was what would the president do, im not sure he knows. The event tells you how to act. Connell and one of the options, i guess, maybe we shoot one of these missiles down at some point. Are we getting close to that point where if there is another missile test, theres a shootdown of the missile . Well, if the missile were on a trajectory to harm u. S. Territory or our allies, we would make every effort to shoot it down. If its headed to the middle of nowhere, it makes more sense for us to actually track it, read the technical aspects of it to know how far theyve perfected their missile technology. Plus, theres a psychological component. If its headed to the middle of nowhere and we try to shoot it down and its a public failure, that strongly encourages kim jong un because our missile defenses have made enormous improvements, but theyre not yet infallible which is one more argument why if china doesnt live up to its global responsibilities, if china doesnt step up, if china doesnt crack down brutally hard on north koreas economy, mercilessly hard, this is going to end in war. Connell well, you know, if they do though, i think weve gotten to working our way back now, if they do, we could be in a pretty good situation if you take the Glass Half Full version of what the president talked about yesterday about the Chinese Central Bank getting involved. And if the chinese follow through on what we think theyre going to do we dont officially know what theyll do, and i know its a big if, but if they follow through, that could be what we need, right . Well, if they follow through. Connell i know. There are two really encouraging things that happened within the last 48 hours, within the last 24 hours. Kim lashed out, the North Koreans lashed out at china. Thats new. That suggests theyre starting to feel some real pain. The other thing was theres still unofficial announcement that the central bank of china will push all of the other chinese banks to stop to dealing with north korea. But lets see what the details are. First of all, its not about loans. It has its about the money transfers, the money laundering, etc. If china were to crack down, they could paralyze whats left of the north korean economy. But again, will china do what it always has done, talk a good fight but then turn a blind eye to smuggling, etc. Plus, youve got the russian factors. The russians are carrying on a very lucrative smuggling trade with north korea, and putins just delighted to see the u. S. Fixated on north korea because it means he can do what he wants elsewhere. Connell yeah. There are a lot of moving parts here but, yes, we can be encouraged by chinas announcement. Lets see what they co. Connell colonel peter, thank you again. Even with all this from north korea that weve been talking about, it just seems like nothing really seems to shake up the stock market much, and it leaves many wondering whether maybe were approaching bubble territory. Maria bartiromo sat down with the Bridgewater Associates founder and asked him about the state of the u. S. Stock market. Lets listen. No. Unlike 2007 when we looked at 2008, we could see at the time that when we did the calculations, individuals, companies and so on we could see that they were not going to have the cash flows to service their debts. Thats not the case now. Connell all right. To the floor show. We have traders today at the new york stock exchange, cme group and nymex. Thats Matt Cheslock at nyse, Mark Sebastian and alan harry at the nymex. Matt, let me go to you, new york stock exchange, on this question about valuations. It doesnt seem like much stops this rally. Understand were down a little bit, basically flatted today, but what do you make of where we are . Listen, weve had nine straight up days in the dow, so its about time we have a small pullback. And youre not going to be buying this dip. This isnt what were looking for. This market continues to grind higher on sectorrelated moves. So certain sectors are taking us higher while one or two give back. Technology was soft early in the week, it was made up by financials and some of the consumer discretionaries. Valuations arent high enough to even get close to calling it a bubble. Connell now, the other thing, mark, that doesnt seem to shake up the market much, these geopolitical events. This is serious stuff with north korea, but, you know, i guess until something actually happens, the market doesnt do all that much. What do you make of it . Yeah. I mean, the halflife on north koreas running out. Every time something happens, the fear is about half. So now unless they really up their game, i think markets are inclined to just ignore them. Thus far nothing has really come out of it, and i think thats going to continue to be the case unless theres an actual war which i think everybody doubts. Connell right. And theres also the question about how much you could really and weve talked about this before kind of price that in. Because an actual war with north korea is beyond disastrous. So maybe it is, you keep going, alan, right . You keep going daytoday. What do you make of the market . Well, when it comes to a conflict with north korea, itll be interesting what will happen in the crude oil market. At first if its not a long war, crude oil would go down. The reason why is because its going to be insurers that are pulling their insurance from shipping into china, into that area. So therell be a glut of crude oil on the market. However, i think it wont happen, and because of that i am buying dips in crude oil. Right now i see a low for us at 47 in wti, and i dont think we go any lower than that. Connell all right, so you do buy, okay. You do find a dip and buy. Matt, you started the conversation by saying youre not really looking to buy dips in stocks versus alans seeing Something Different in the market he follows. Thats interesting, what do you make of it . Im ready to buy dips, this isnt a dip. Connell right, i know. Were looking for something much steeper. You know, Money Managers are sitting on a ton of cash because theyve missed this big move. They want to insure they get a discount, and thats why this market keeps going higher. Connell looking for dips. Maybe look for a little dip in apple. Theres cisco, verizon, but were going to talk about apple and that iphone 8 in a few minutes. Matt, mark and alan, thanks to you. Appreciate it. Now, the dow is down 28, as matt points out, not much of a dip, but down by that much. Up next, this grahamcassidy bill that weve talked so much about, supposedly the last ditch effort from the senate gop to fix obamacare, not so fast. Looks like senator john mccain has done it again. Chris wallace, Fox News Sunday, is here with us to talk about what turned out to be the big political story of the afternoon. Chris is coming up. Countdown will be right back. Dont let dust and allergens get between you and lifes beautiful moments. Flonase outperforms the 1 nondrowsy allergy pill. It helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms. Pills block one and 6 is greater than 1. Flonase changes everything. So new touch screens. And biometrics. In 574 branches. All done by. Yesterday. Banks arent just undergoing a face lift. Theyre undergoing a transformation. A data fueled, security driven shift in applications and customer experience. Which is why comcast business delivers Consistent Network Performance and speed across all your locations. Hello, mr. Deets. Every Branch Running like headquarters. Thats how you outmaneuver. Connell okay. Were back here on the countdown. News alert on twitter. This is senator Lindsey Graham moments ago, the senate says that i respectfully disagree with senator john mccains position not to proceed on the grahamcassidy bill, and then he follows up with another tweet, and he says my friendship with senator mccain is not based on how he votes, but for the respect in how hes lived his life. His friend is the sponsor of it, but hes not a supporter of it. The republican senator from arizona opposes this republican proposal to eliminate the Affordable Care act. I mean, this crossed as a headline a little over an hour ago, whatever it was, and it became a big, big news story. Susan collins, who were showing here from maine is, quote, leaning against the bill as well. We knew that earlier in the day. So as the senate rushes to finish this Health Care Bill before the clock expires, it looks like its in to put it mildly big, big trouble. So tonight President Trump will be in huntsville, alabama, plunging into that Alabama Senate race. Were going to talk about that. Youve got senator Luther Strange in alabama against roy moore. So i think one of the questions will be does the president talk about that race . Im sure he will, but how much does he talk about some of the other issues weve talked about already, be it north korea or, certainly, health care and john mccain. Chris wallace, Fox News Sunday, will join us in a few minutes, but before that, lets talk about apple. Its down for a third day in a row, on track for its worst week since april. Iphone 8 and the watch series 3 launching today, but since apple unveiled its new products september the 12th, the stocks down more than 6 . You start wondering are people just not that excited . Are they waiting for the iphone x . Hillary vaughn is in los angeles, good to see you. What are you seeing at that location today . Reporter hey, connell. Here on the west coast this apple stores been open for about two hours. Weve seen around 300 people come and go, people waiting in line now right behind me. Shoppers can get their hands on two of apples new products, the iphone 8 and the apple watch series 3. The iphone 8 isnt as flashy and gets upstaged by the iphone x that hasnt hit stores yet, but still because of its more reasonable price point and new features is the mainstream phone that millions of people will upgrade to this year. Its big three features, Wireless Charging with a glass back, 4k video camera, its designed for augmented reality apps and games. Weed is shoppers why we asked shoppers why they decided to go for the 8 instead of waiting for the x. I think id be embarrassed to walk around with something as expensive as the iphone x or 10, whatever theyre calling it. So the iphone 8s a lot more normal to me. Im still spending a lot on the iphone 8. The x is a lot more expensive still. Its like i need to save up to spend on my technology. At the same time, im using every single day. Reporter also apples new bling for your wrist, the apple series 3 watch with lte is in stores today. We talked to some shoppers and asked them what they think about the bug that comes with this watch, the wifi glitch that sometimes makes cell capability not work 100 of the time. They said they really went concerned because they kind of expect a few bugs once new Technology Hits the market, and they are aware that apples working on a fix more that. But, connell, people here today are very aware that theyre still dropping a lot of cash on the iphone 8. They arent fooled by the 1,000 price tag of the iphone x. For the cheapest version of the 8, shoppers are still going to pay out 700. Connell not exactly a bargain. Its interesting about the watch, well have to see. If theyre there, theyre interested, but what about the people who didnt show up today . Hillary vaughn out in l. A. Now, as promised, lets bring in Chris Wallace to talk good to see you, chris about the politics of the day and how about that john mccain, huh . Hes done it again. Well, yeah, except hes not the final vote here. Connell true. Hes the second vote. They need one more will kill this. And as they said in the Princess Bride about the knight, this bill is mostly dead at this point. [laughter] youve got rand paul a firm no because he says it doesnt repeal obamacare. Youve got mccain, now a firm no because he says, basically, this is an ugly way to pass a bill without going through hearings, without getting a cbo score with which theyre not going to get next week. So now they just need one more, the opponents, and this goes down and basically repealing and replacing obamacare is dead for the foreseeable future. I would say it is more likely than not that they will get that third vote. Connell right. Youve got Susan Collins whos voted against every one of these, Lisa Murkowski of alaska has voted against every one of these and a bunch of others. It really is just hanging on by a thread here. Connell what would be the next step, say, as you say, for example, if Susan Collins whos said to be leaning against it leans all the way, does senator mcconnell still bring it to the floor just to say that we, one of those situations you sometimes see in washington, to have a vote to say that we had one . That is probably the Biggest Issue right now, what they would do. Some people say, look, it doesnt do any good for anybody to have a vote and go down to defeat. It just, to the degree that a lot of your base is upset already with the fact that Obamacare Repeal and replace has gone nowhere with a republican ho