bullishness on stocks, all-time high watch out, i'm going to -- >> speaking of bitcoin -- >> i'm getting a little nervous. not nervous saturday night, my hokies defeat -- >> throws down the gauntlet. >> these two virginians. you know thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now. hi, everybody, welcome to "the closing bell. i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm bill griffeth the end of a newsy week, a newsy day. breaking news this afternoon they were just talking about it. broadcom reportedly exploring a takeover of qualcomm it would be the largest ever global technology deal according to s&p global. we'll have more details on what type of deal this may look like if it were to happen. and according to rich peterson, the eighth biggest deal of all-time this is a mega, mega one here. qualcomm shares up 12%

broadcom's 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, it's 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 he's going to pick up the iphone

x. we asked fans online why they were excited about the x here's what they had to say. >> probably the screen the oled screen. i've 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. here's what they told us >> it's pretty high, but i think it's worth it for a new iphone >> reporter: bulls are betting that the iphone x, of course, is going to be a hit. it's 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 today's 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 we're 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 we're trying to do that. cook adding that he believes this will be apple's 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. let's 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, they're talking about, you know, of course, broadcom moving to their headquarters in delaware but i mean, this could be a blockbuster deal and that's 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 singapore-based soon to be u.s.-based broadcom looking

at a deal to buy fellow semiconductor company qualcomm, a u.s.-based company now, that's according to sources familiar the initial reports from bloomberg sent shares of qualcomm up by around 20% at the highs of the day we're 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 it's a mix of cash and stock that would put qualcomm's 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 dell's 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. >> i'm 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? >> we're talking about two of the biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world whether it it's radio frequency chip sets, semiconductors, computer chips, wireless chips,

that sort of thing imagine a deal between two top-ten 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. that's one thing also like you said, there's 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. that's 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 they're 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, we're 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, we're talking with broadcom trying to buy brocade, that's a committee that's 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 broadcom's

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 they're 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. let's 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 he's at post 9 sitting next to torison from deutsche bank securities sitting next to steve grasso from stuart frankel, also a cnbc contributor. there's 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, that's still a decent number for job growth right now, isn't 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 weather-sensitive sectors, that i did, of course, get quite a hit last month but the weather-sensitive 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 what's the market kind of thinking about this broadcom deal potentially what do you think is on the mind here dow up 18 points. >> let's 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 hasn't 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, i'm 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 don't know whether it's the tax reform sausage-making, maybe it's 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 all-time 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 let's 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 that's 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, let's see what happens let's see what congress decides. let's see what the senate decides. let's see how they come back and if this bill gets passed, you're going to bring corporate tax rates down to 20% which is where most of the developed countries are. we're almost double that right now. >> we'll 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 what's happening there, do you think? >> reporter: you know, i don't 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

that's why i think it's going to be such a great success. i don't know to me, i still think -- i think more like jamie dimon, but it doesn't mean it can't exist, doesn't mean it can't 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, it's a little difficult. but when i look at our markets, i see a flattening curve and it doesn't 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 two-year note is the only yield closing up on the week it's up three basis points on the week go out to the long end, it's 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, you're jay powell you're thinking of continuing janet yellen's 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 here's a wild one. the italian ten year is at 175 it's very difficult. i hate to get back to that relative value trade but you almost have to consider those variables didn't like the wage component at all in the jobs report today we gave up that year-over-year 2.9 last time. right back to 2.4. to me, wages are a big issue with regard to how you interpret today's 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, we've got 46 minutes left in the trading session here everybody's 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? we'll debate that coming up here this hour. we want to hear from you we've actually been asking you today to tell us about your worst job interview story. let us know via twitter, facebook or over e-mail. we're going to read your comments at the end of the show for a very special reason. we'll show you why coming up big thinking in the finger lakes is pushing the new new york forward. we're 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, we're building the new new york.

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. 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, we're 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 we'll 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, it's gotten a lot tougher. cvs shares after the news hit last week, their market cap fell to about $70 billion so it really doesn't 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 that's 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. >> all-time highs. >> always very interesting very transformative. >> yes that's it. says something about where we are in the psych b cycle, too. let's 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, you've interviewed the qualcomm ceo quite often. what are your thoughts when broadcom might be going after qualco qualcomm >> here's my thought, bill this is a literal head scratcher. i'm scratching my head a little bit. this would be a ridiculously low price from qualcomm's 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 that's 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 didn't sound like a guy who was looking to sell his company. they're 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 adobe's 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, a smaller competitor, would try to take it out now granted broadcom is not smaller than qualcomm technically in terms of market cap. that company has done quite well snapping up a number of other different companies but this just does not seem like the sort of thing that a qualcomm would

want to do paul jacobs, who is the executive chairman of qualcomm, is the son of the founder. this is a company that sees itself as an innovator and a continuing growth story. we'll see how it turns out >> i will just point out, i've just been told that cnbc has been able to confirm that broadcom has offered about $70 a share in both cash and stock so -- >> but that goes -- so jon, this is a company, qualcomm was trading at $80 three years ago. >> exactly. >> they're going to accept $70 >> the whole reason why you have to -- if you believe that qualcomm is worth, you know, somewhere in the 50s or the 60s, where it's been trading lately, it's because you believe that there's real problems with its licensing model. okay if you're long on the stock, and you think it's worth more than that, it's because you think it will get through this licensing issues as it's gotten through other issues in the past now, if broadcom is going to buy it, the value has got to be in

the intellectual property so the head scratcher is if they think it's worth something, shouldn't investors think it's worth something? and if investors think it's worth something, it might be worth more than 70 bucks a share. i don't know how that's going to work out or what qualcomm's official response is going to be usually we get this stuff in letters, but we'll see >> jon, just one other theory, too, it might be worth more to broadcom if they have as one analyst has said 60%-plus combined in wi-fi and chips and the radio and qualcomm's modem and processer. can qualcomm create more volume with the company than a standalone entity in the public markets? >> i'm sure samsung would love to buy apple, too. >> don't start that rumor now for us >> no, i'm just saying, if we're talking about arguments that could be made for combining things, look, we got the components -- >> this is not as out on a limb as that would be. >> it might be. >> they're in the same line of business you know, i sort of see what

you're saying but is this really that much of a david and goliath -- >> you're sounding like an investment banker trying to encourage thing to go after that deal >> i certainly don't mean to do that what i mean to say, these are two competitors where the prey is in by some measures a lot bigger than the predator in this case it's not like it's an all-cash deal it's not like, you know, broadcom is as much of a known quantity as, say, a large mature company. this is -- broadcom is a company that's been making a lot of acquisitions, been a really aggressive streak that's been impressive that's the sort of setup that causes investors to take pause and take stock of what really would be the best scenario for their investment. >> yeah. one final note here, jon, thank you, jon fortt there, broadcom shares at $271 they were at $30 five years ago. that's a powerful currency for deals like this. >> that's amazing. well, they've gone through a lot

of acquisitions over that time, too, as well. all right. it goes without saying all of us here at cnbc, we are thrilled, we are relieved, and we are so happy to have our sharon epperson back. she'll be here with a very personal story about avoiding financial disaster during an unexpected change in your health that's coming up here. also former fdic chair and college president sheila bair joins us to weigh in on the impact of college loans and on the financial sector that's coming up how'd that go? he kept spelling my name with an 'i' but it's bryan with a 'y.' yeah, since birth. that drives me crazy. yes. it's on all your email. yes. they should know this? yeah. the guy was my brother-in-law. that's ridiculous. well, i happen to know some people. do they listen? what? they're amazing listeners. nice. guidance from professionals who take their time to get to know you.

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story with an important lesson for all of us. nobody likes thinking about the unexpected when your life and finances could change just like that but our friend and colleague, sharon epperson, was faced with that very situation just a year ago. fortunately, she did plan ahead. and this is her incredible story. >> reporter: reporting on how to manage, grow and protect your money is what i do the bottom line is you probably need to be saving more than you're saving right now. planning for the critical that, i know, because it happened to me the day started like many others making sure my son and daughter got off to school and coordinating schedules with my husband. then i went to exercise before heading to the studio. i lifted some weights, started stretching suddenly, i felt incredible pain the worst headache of my life. the rest of the day became a

blur of doctors, hospitals, emergency rooms. scans and images revealed bleeding in my brain a bulge in the wall of a main artery there had burst it was a ruptured brain aneur m aneurism. >> the doctors have told me that she could lose her life or the things that make life worth living and of those two, i didn't know really which is worse. >> reporter: surgery was just the beginning. i spent two weeks in intensive care followed by long days of rehabilitation and ready for my recovery. relearning how to keep my balance. and walk up stairs from caregiver, to being cared for, my recovery was more demanding than we ever expected. >> suddenly you're immersed in this medical frenzy of making choices that could define your life and your family and your future. >> reporter: and getting back up to speed on running my family's finances took time

thankfully, i had planned ahead. something financial adviser stacey francis says many fail to do >> the number-one reason for bankruptcy is actually medically related. so if you're not preparing, you could be putting yourself in a disastrous situation of having to use credit card debt, even going into your retirement plan. >> reporter: ample emergency savings and disability insurance helped pay the bills while i was out of work. and is why preparing for the unexpected is something all of us need to do. >> make sure that you have at least three to six months of your living expenses the next thing, look at your disability insurance does that pay you enough that your financial situation would still be comfortable and secure? and finally, make sure that your estate planning is updated. >> reporter: the steps i took before my brain injury allowed me to spend time with loved ones instead of worrying about money. my family and friends helped me get stronger encouraged me to walk farther.

and cheered me on as i reached another milestone in my recovery >> let's go, mom. >> reporter: finishing my first ever 5k race. >> this was the first race she'd ever done and the fact that she prepared for it through illness, that was sort of an amazing moment >> today we are very happy to welcome sharon back to our show. sharon, we missed your advice. we're thankful you're okay how are you feeling? >> thank you so much i'm feeling great. i'm so grateful to be able to be back here. and be able to tell my story and hopefully to tell other people to always pay attention to your body always pay attention to your care because you just never know what could happen. >> you are an example of somebody -- ate your own cooking. you've been telling people for years, you've been our personal finance correspondent for a long time you've been telling people this very information, to prepare for the unexpected then it happened to you but you were prepared. >> i was prepared. one of the things i've said so many times, because every

financial adviser has told me this, is that you're much more likely while you're working to become disabled than you are to pass away. so when you're getting all of your financial information together and planning, you really feed to tekeep that in mind. >> having said that, though, any surprises, anything you overlooked or learned you hadn't prepared for necessarily >> i didn't necessarily have everything in one place. and i think one of the things, changes we've made is to make sure that we have somewhere online, a portal, where we can go to where all of our financial information so if anything happens, my husband can find it or someone else who needs to find it, if he's not able to do it, can go there and find it. >> not all the moves are trying to about save more money or get the insurance coverage although those are of course important. some are things like power of attorney, right? >> power of attorney is so critical for your medical and for your finances and the health care power attorney was my husband, is my husband, and he had to make medical decisions when i was unconscious and unable to do so. so that was a very, very important role, and the

financial power of attorney is also important to handle the bills and make sure everything is paid on time. >> which was -- oh, yeah, i was just going to say, reminds me of just one other thing you mentioned which is to put your financial life on autopilot as much as you can. >> yes it is very important and just automatic bill pay, making sure you have direct deposit, all of those things can help at this time, you focus on getting better, focus on your care and not have to focus on your finances. >> you did the 5k. >> i did. >> on behalf of the brain aneurism foundation. >> brain aneurism foundation i did. i had great supporters the e.r. doctor who actually first saw me and said you need to go to the emergency room right now and need to get checked out, he came, supported this race. so i'm very grateful to the health system for being there, all of the doctors and nurses and everyone that was there. i was talking about personal finance from my hospital bed so they're probably sick of me she's gone, they're talking about this, again. >> there she goes again. >> it's important. >> go ahead. >> i was just going to say because it was a year ago -- that's a long time to recover.

did you have coverage for that whole period or was that where the savings -- >> that's why long-term disability insurance is so very important and, yes, i did have coverage so that was really, really helpful >> wow >> that's why she is where she is and we are so thrilled i know that chris and dylan and emma are thrilled to have you where you are. >> they're so great. >> so is your family at cnbc. >> thank you i have a wonderful cnbc family i really support the -- really appreciate the support that i've gotten and all the well wishes and now i'm ready. tax reform, come on. >> all right. >> ready to talk business. >> as i said to you, love the new do, too, by the way. >> thanks so much. >> good to see you, sharon. time for a cnbc news update with sue herera. >> thanks, bill, thanks, kelly here's what's happening at this hour, everyone army sergeant bowe bergdahl was spared prison time for desse dessertidessererting his post he was dishonorably discharged by the judge president trump called the sentencing a disgrace. bergdahl's lawyer believes the criticism from trump could be a basis for dismissal. >> president trump when he was a

candidate, of course, made really extraordinary and reprehensible comments targeted directly at our client it's one of the most preposterous states of affairs that i can think of in american legal history. walt disney istimes" from advanced screenings of its films in response to a "times" series about the tense relationship between the company and city of anaheim. disney called that series unfair coverage. the country music association is apologizing after trying to impose restrictions on questions by the media about the mass shooting in las vegas at its awards show next wednesday this after a backlash from artists including co-host brad paisley who called the restrictions ridiculous and unfair that is the news update at this hour kelly, bill, i'll send it back

downtown to you. >> thank you, sue, see you next hour sue herera. financials not having a great day following the release of the new gop tax plan. plus side, the bill provides a big tax cut but caps the mortgage interest reduction which could be negative for lenders. >> let's talk about that among other things joining us to figure out the impact of the tax plan on banks among other things, sheila bair back with us, former chair of the fdic, founder of the system risk council good to see you. welcome back. >> thanks, happy to be here. >> have you thought this through yet on the impact it could have on the financial industry and maybe lenders in particular? >> yeah, i think we're all still dige digesting. i think it's a net positive for banks. i mean, they have higher effective rates than a lot of corporati corporation. any company that employs a lot of people in the u.s. produce and provides their services in the u.s. are penalized by our current tax code i think it's -- i very strongly support reducing the corporate rate to 20%. it will make us more internationally competitive. so i don't begrudge the banks on that that will be a nice increase to

their bottom line. i think the mortgage interest deduction is overblown other countries who've reduced it or gotten rid of it, you really didn't see a hit to home ownership. where it probably will have an impact is in the size of the house. you know, the price of your house is maybe impacted more in terms of people wanting to buy homes, i don't see it's going to have a huge impact. and i don't think it will have a huge impact on the big banks the lowering of the corporate rate is much more positive for them they dodged the bullet on a lot of things, too they didn't get the transaction tax. didn't give a derivatives tax. >> right. >> the cap on corporate interest deductibili deductibility, they escaped apparently a curious provision that says if you receive more interest income than you pay out, you don't have to deal with the cap so they escaped a lot in this bill to get a nice size rate cut. so i think it's a net positive for them, i absolutely do. >> sheila, the private equity firms in if particular, we saw a hit there, and, you know, some questions about -- >> that's different, yeah.

>> how big of a deal is this >> well, you know, i don't know. it could be significant. i mean, they could have seen some commentary that they might just replace debt with preferred stock in financing their buyouts and, of course, banks lend to them day finan they finance these buyouts that could also impact the banks indirectly it still provides quite a bit of leverage, so and it just denies the interest deductibility that's something that's still being analyzed on the plus side, they might benefit from the passthrough rate cut most private equity funds and hedge funds organized this passthrough. there are a lot of rules trying to limit the ability of the super rich to use this passthrough cut but that also is a possible way they might be able to game that. so that's something else i think to keep an eye on. i really question that whether you need a passthrough cut at all. passthroughs by definition are not taxed twice. corporations are that's why you have the lower rate for passthroughs i think the

case is very weak for cutting that rate. >> i have about 30 seconds i'm curious, why don't you think they'd cut the capital gains tax? is it already low enough, is that the feeling >> yeah, i think it is you know, there's still, to me, look, i think -- i'd go the other way, if anything, because you want to make sure these corporate rate cuts enure to the benefit more broadly of customers, of workers, and so if you're worried about it all going to shareholders, it seems to be the argue for raising that rate and so i think leaving it where it was was probably the politically smart thing to do. look, we're awash with investment income right now. i don't really know if you need more tax incentives for people to be investing in the stock market right now >> sent a chill up and down someone's spine right there with that suggestion. let me ask you, sheila, before we go about bitcoin. >> yep. >> we've seen the price continue to surge. >> yeah. >> i do wonder now with jay powell at the fed, don't you think the fed has to start looking at this? i mean, you know, it's not necessarily the kind of bubble that swept upbanks and the

economy in the financial crisis but the price does keep surging. >> well, it does i don't know if this is the fed. i just worry about, you know, mom, pa investors trying to get into this. it's highly speculative, highly volatile and should know what you're doing if you're going to be investing in bitcoin or any digital currency i think it's a small enough market, i don't see systemic ramifications. i think on the upside, the blockchain technology that underlies the transfer of ownership used for bitcoin has a lot of positive benefits in terms of systemic risk and so i think and hope the fed is focusing on if from that perspective, too >> all right, sheila always good to see you >> nice to see you. >> appreciate it >> sheila bair. home builders' stocks were under pressure this week on concerns that tax plan will hurt the industry we'll debate whether this is a y t d oornity coming up. [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference.

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welcome back the home builders are flat today, some declines, big declined yesterday in the session after the gop tax reform plan came out and suggested capping the mortgage interest deduction on new homes at half a billion bucks. >> so, we're going to talk about

whether investors should be getting in or out of housing stocks joining us, a bull and a bear. ken zenner from key bank capital markets is our bull. david from ancora advisers is our bear ken, in fact, you upgraded toll brothers yesterday after the selloff. why? >> we did. we thought the opportunity of the selloff with some misunderstanding of the tax implications combined with our fundamental view that 3q orders for toll brothers were better setting us above the street into fy '18. >> i mean, the thinking goes that if you cap the mortgage interest, fewer people are going to want to buy a house, that will impact the demand for the houses that these companies are going to build, so their earnings will be affected. what's flawed about that, ken? >> well, there's two components here mortgage interest deduction, that's one element along with s.a.l.t state and local tax. those on face and isolation

would be negative. we focus on the fact alternative minimum tax, amt, is a tax overlow for high tax states. because of that, we don't think headwinds are as onerous as people might suspect. >> david, you think the headwinds are pretty heavy, don't you? >> i do, kelly i think, first, in portfolio management, you have limited shelf space in consumer discretionary stocks, given that, i don't want to own the home builders. simply because we're later in the cycle, interest rates are likely to be rising. the return on capital long term in the industry is lacking the free cash flow is lacking. and for those reasons, in limited shelf space, i won't own a home builder i might own and do own home building-related stocks like masco corporation, cabinets and faucets, or armstrong that does floors and ceilings. i think those are better wealth creators to own in a tough space to make money than to directelyy

own home builders. frankly, again, too late in the cycle to want to be a home builder buyer. >> what do you think about that, ken? >> i think david raises some good points. we are more constructive on the building product names as we have said in the past, however, i do think the strong reaction yesterday was overdone, specifically to toll, and with our upward earnings revisions expected, we think it's a nice way to play the year-end trade >> you buy these stocks earlier in the cycle when they're as normally beaten up in recession or a bear market this late in the cycle, especially given the likelihood that interest rates are rising, but especially return on capital to the investor, i think, is lacking in this type of stage in the bull market. >> but david, your assumption that we're at that late of a stage in the bull market that it can't be justified, look how long the cycle's already been. what if this is dragged out f e

the way interest rates are looking lately >> kelly, that's a good question the equity or the stock market can continue its gain but in a portfolio where i main own 40 or 50 stocks and i'm seeking return and outperforming in index, i'm not going to get it with the ohm builders, frankly. >> all right ken zener, david sowerby thank you. home builders, an important sector of the economy right now. appreciate it. >> thank you. ten minutes to go until the bell dow hanging on to a small point. the s&p's gain is almost larger than the dow's here it is you coan see it on your screen. >> it is >> russell, up 48 points especially after this rumored broadcom bid for qualcomm. that is pushing both of those stocks higher. >> and that makes that an all-time high intraday for the nasdaq we'll tell you what's fueling the gains. it's not just about broadcom/qualcomm. we'll get to that coming up next helping keep shoppers safe.

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the nasdaq is not only up big today, sixth straight week of gains bertha coombs is over there with a look at the biggest movers bertha >> have to start with apple, of course, providing the biggest oomph in terms of points gains

apple at a new all-time high market cap shy of $900 billion that is providing a lift here. some of that is also spreading over to the chips. even before we got the news on perspective bid of broadcom toward caqualcomm already chips were the winner for the week some of that no doubt because of the enthusiasm over apple sales for the types of nvidia and skyworks back to you. >> all right, bertha, thank you very much. i forgot to mention art cashin says the market on close orders are a nonevent today $100 million to sell >> abe thatmaybe that's why you to mention >> pbay.robl i'll go with that. we're going to come back to the "closing countdown," wrap up this week in just a moment stay tuned of out performance. where a rising middle class powers a booming auto industry. a leap into the digital era draws youthful populations to mobile banking and e-commerce. trade and travel surge between emerging markets.

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the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online. three minutes left in the trading session and in the trading week, so all three of the may josh averages, the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq, are finishing in record territory, but to recap this week, you have to give it to the nasdaq stellar gain, six weeks in a row now that we've seen technology has just found another gear as i keep saying, and late this week is when we saw a lot of the gains after the apple earnings and then this word that maybe broadcom is going to make an offer for qualcomm over the weekend of as much as $70 a share. so the nasdaq with a healthy gain of almost 1%.

and look at the faang stocks they're all in record territory right now. last week, we highlighted amazon after those stellar earnings, and this week it's all about apple. facebook turned in big numbers they're just off their highs right now. netflix and google all doing well right now the ten-year yield, we've highlighted this week at the yield curve has flattened. it's the flattest it's been in about ten years and we get the nomination now of jay powell to be the new federal reserve chairman dealing with the issue of trying to raise interest rates. the fed is selling off its balance sheet. they did $6 billion in sales last week. the biggest day they've done in about five years and the price of oil, that's gone up to a two-year high right now. it's around $55 a barrel, bob pisani you know what that means for the price of gasoline. so everybody, here's my tip for the day, go out and buy some gas. this weekend fill up the tank. >> gasoline up a lot more than oil was in september due to the

hurricanes. >> right. >> at least refineries did better let's look at the xle. bill was talking about oil from $52 to $55 in the last week xle is the big energy etf everybody wants. we've finally broken through to the highest level since april or so been a heartbreaker all year you and i talked many times about people trying to buy the bottom in oil and energy stocks and have failed consistently throughout the year. this is the biggest rally we've seen in a while in the last month or so. number one, we've got oil up significantly. number two, we've got from the earnings reports much more disciplined capital spending they're not just going out and let's do as much production as we can, let's look at it a little more carefully. finally something that worries me a little, bill, again today, the russell 2000 down. the s&p 500 is on the upside this has been a very noticeable trend. look at that in the last month. this is happening since about october 8th. that was when corker had his big dispute. you'd think they'd be doing a little better with the tax

bill -- >> let's not forget some of the small business groups have opposed the tax bill they don't think there's enough benefit for the small businesses out there. just yet. >> if you believe this is some kind of bellwether for a tax reform, that's a little worriso worrisome. >> closing out another very, very busy week we'll wrap things up and look ahead to another busy week coming up on the second hour of "the closing bell" with kelly evans and company. have a lovely weekend, kelly thank you, bill. welcome to "the closing bell," everybody, i'm kelly evans and we have a trio of record closes on the bell here to finish out the week on wall street. let's start with the dow, up 22 points nearly. 23,538 the new record closing high there the dow was the underperforming of the major averages, of course also have the russell small caps down .1% today the s&p 500 an eight-point gain to 2,587

the nasdaq composite, big performer, 50 points higher to close at 6,764, a record high for the nasdaq by the way, for the dow and s&p 500, this is their eighth straight weekly gain, the longest for both indexes in four years. six weeks straight as well for nasdaq. nordstroms and macy's lower. shedding 7,000 jobs last month with both major department stores reporting earnings next week, we'll take a look at what that weakness means for the sector and broader economy coming up. joining me now, bill smid from smid capital management charlie from arial investments thanks for joining me on this friday. >> glad to be here. >> let's zero in owen t the bigt movers apple, up 3%, 2.6% it closed bir might be related to the broadco measu m/qualcomm news. the biggest decliner in the

broad market was century link. let's take a closer look at apple now continuing higher after last dmigt's earnings beat mixed growth across all segment the, iphone, ipad, mac, services stock hitting all-time highs today. bill, what do you make of it >> well, you make of it what it's been all along which is incredibly successful consumer company, and electronic device company that's, you know, far and away the largest stock in the index and still has quite a bit of many momentum. >> you an owner of it here >> we're not an owner like anything that's gone up tenfoal in less than ten years i'm an envious nonowner >> nevertheless, apple's valuation has never been that high you know, you could have gotten involved and made a valuation argument that was pretty comp compelling, right? >> well, you can, except you got two things at work, kelly. there's always valuing the businesses and there's also the

mathematical probability of a gigantic corporation continuing to succeed constantly. you know, i think about professional athletes and a great professional athlete will get injured or have a slump and so we're 8 1/2 years into an uninterrupted bull market in stocks like apple, and they haven't had an injury. they haven't had a slump and if you're the person that steps in and corrects, you know, catches the next bear market in technology stocks, you very well might get damaged. >> charlie, what's your floss f philosophy on that >> yeah, i would say of all these high flyers, apple is the one are the real business. there was a time when it was selling at a reasonable multiple compared to an amazon or alphabet or a netflix. so this was a reasonable stock i didn't buy it, either, and i'm kicking myself for it.

i think the one thing i would quibble with in your int introduction is sure, ipads and other products were up but this is becoming almost a one-product story. it's all about the phone and if they ever have a hiccup on that, and people don't want to pay $1,000 for a phone, i certainly wouldn't, then the stock is going to be, look, overpriced in retrospect. >> all right that might be a big if as you suggested. let's get to the big deal moves of the day cnbc has confirmed broadcom is considering making a bid for qualcomm it would be a cash and stock deal worth about 70 bucks a share, both names spiking on the news qualcomm still around 61 with a gain of 13%. broadcom up 5.5% and bill, i mean, this has wide imply kapgs llications here would be the biggest technology deal of all-time, eighth biggest deal period of all-time. valuation at $90 billion is bigger than all the tech deals that have been done so far year to date. what do you think? >> well, first off, we took a pretty hard look at qualcomm in

the last year or two and had extensive conversations and when it comes to intellectual property, and who is going to win the fight between apple and them in court, we instantly threw it in the too hard pile because it's outside our circle of competency. on the other hand, were they a meritorious looking company before this? yes. lots of free cash flow, great intellectual property, a long history of success a lo the of tt of the things we. we just decided no. >> okay. >> i will say this, these takeovers are synonymous with the late stages of a bull run in a sector go back and look at '87 in the r.j. nabisco leverage buyout you get a lot of this stuff in a very popular sector late in the cycle and we think technology is very late in the cycle. >> charlie, what would you say about that by the way, for qualcomm shareholders, even $70 for a

stock that was trading at $80 three, four years ago, it's interesting i don't know if they would consider it, if they would, that would tell you something. >> yeah, we actually agree here that the power is with the buyers of the chip technology, not with the chips, themselves so in these negotiations, the apples of the world and the googles of the world making their own devices just have the power and it was a time when an intel chip was so valuable with its own brand and we just don't think that chip makers have that today. the r&d and the capital expenditures are just too high for us to see good returns long term . >> and as you mentioned, intel was the biggest decliner in the dow today. let's check out the starbucks chart meantime we told you about the earnings last night had the stock down about 7% initially after revenue missed expectations but it turned around this morning. and in fact, starbucks closed up more than 2% the ceo kevin johnson was on "squawk on the street" today addressing growth concerns >> the fact that we were able to build over 2,000 starbucks

stores globally that are performing at higher annual unit volumes than prior generations in an era where retailers are closing stores at a record pace gives us confidence that there's affinity for the brand >> bill, you guys invested in starbucks here >> yeah, we've owned starbucks for the life of our strategy, and here's what we think is interesting. first of all, it sounds terrible, we'd like to own a lot more of it at lower prices so we were kind of excited in the aftermarket yesterday hoping that it would break down and we'd get a bargain and instead, it turns around and we think it turns around because growth stocks have so obliterated value staocks value analysis has been of so little use in the last couple years that any growth stock with me hope or prayer even on a somewhat disapointing earnings report kind of turns around. i mean, starbucks and nike are

both operating on the same wafting of growth stock out-performance. that's who's got all the money that's who's got the inflows, index, a growth stock portfolio and other growth stock investors. therefore, any little weakness in equality historically good long-term growth stock seems to be met by buying the dip. >> here's the flip side of that coin the s&p financials were the biggest sector laggard in the market today they were dragged down by insurers and lenders and aig was the worst performer there after its weak earnings yesterday. aig closed down about 4.5% later tonight we're expected to get numbers from berkshire hathaway charlie, what does this say to you? >> that insurance is all about company-specific information aig was down big, but progressive was up big it's all about how have these exposures come in? it turned out aig had underwritten a lot of stuff in california and was really hurt by those fires where progressive, people had been worried about california,

texas and florida auto losses that came in much lower than people's expected. this is an industry where it's very company-specific. >> what about rates, charlie, how does that factor into the equation here, too the tenu year moved lower after the jobs report this morning. >> today it didn't have much of an impact. this is a fascinating area when money is cheap, you get a lot of money coming into the re-insurance market. warren buffett always complains that when interest rates are low, people underwrite re-insurance at way too low pricing. so tech generally interest rates going up has been good for hardening the market and gett g getting -- getting pricing better and lower interest rates have been tough on the business. >> for sure. >> kelly >> yeah, quickly >> yeah, your discussion before we came on about the home builders, i find it interesting, the one guy said we're a long way into the economic recovery we are, it's the most anemic economic recovery, and we're

early in the millennials, the largest population group, getting into the home building so if he thinks that this is the end of the cycle, if he thinks that we're going to peak out at what would have been lousy recession levels in home building before these millennials get done, he's not doing his demographic mathematics. >> so, bill, i know this is a sort of an industry-specific call what does that mean for the overall rally and even for the economic expansion >> i think it might be like an '87 or it might be like ultimately when the tech bubble burst. the economy, the united states, is on such good footing in relation to historical measurements like household debt to service ratio, and other things because the largest adult population group has yet to do the biggest borrowing of their life which is a mortgage by the way, the fear about the home builders on the deductibility and limit on

$500,000 mortgages, well, we own nvr. they sell an average price of $383,000 and we own lennar, they sell an average price of $400,000 how many people ever take out more than a $500,000 mortgage to buy a $400,000 house >> bill, where's your office >> in seattle. >> okay. well, that's interesting washington has no state income tax. we could talk about new jersey and upstate new york i was surprised to hear their congresswoman earlier today saying she supports the bill the property tax rates, you know, for upstate new york for a property value that's not even that high, it does sound like there's going to be real negatives there. >> you know, i love you for bringing that up steve case wrote an essay in the "forbes" 100th an versevy about what he calls the rise of the rest if this tax bill becomes law as it is right now, we will see the biggest in migration of people between 25 and 40 from the expensive coastal areas to the rest of the country.

case calls it the rise of the rest >> all right i like that. i'm going to look for it we got to talk about media stocks for a second, though, because discovery got hit big again today. the second day in a row on cord-cutting concerns. it was down 4.5% st it a 52-week low, by the way, only cvs managed to close highe after its earnings report yesterday afternoon. charlie, cbs says cord cutting doesn't hurt it. discovery said it needs to finds a way to get into the streaming game. >> i apologize for not owning apple. i'm going to take some bows that arial owns a lot of cbs. the same thing i talked about that company-specific. cord cutting doesn't hurt cbs. they have a broadcast channel and over the top channel and they're doing very well in political advertising which, of course, the cable nets don't really get nearly their share. so cbs has done very well while the cable nets have not. probably the acquisition that they made of the big acquisition that discovery made probably doesn't look as good when they

bought scrips. much bigger in a bad business. cbs and meredith, the local tv station company, have been very strong >> all right thank you, both. by the way, bill, what jobs are these millennial who are moving from the coast inland going to get? are they working from home >> oh, you can take a software engineer to kansas city to work on a mutual found compaund comp. they don't have to be in new york you can take them anywhere all they need is water and wi-fi. lastly, charlie's right about cbs. we own tegna which owns the largest cbs affiliate owner and the same thing's drew on the individual local tv affiliates for cbs and nbc. they also are defended from the cord cutting all those over the top people end up wanting, the people that have them want to watch their local news >> guys, thank you so much it's been a pleasure bill, charlie. water and wi-fi are the new staples. and we know that's true. apple shares hitting an

all-time high today after its big earnings beat. closing in on that $1 trillion market cap growth in china a huge part of the profit boost up next, we'll discuss whether the release of the i dpoiphone china can keep it doing. retail jobs falling for the eighth time in nine months we found that out this morning how that could impact the economy coming up. on this jobs report day, we want to hear your worst job interview story. let us know on twitter, facebook or send us an e-mail 'lreal the top stories later in the show with a little surprise stay with us

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apple shares hit an all-time high today after beating on earnings yesterday shares up about 2.6% see growth in greater china after a challenging past couple years. 12% revenue group there. ceo tim cook addressed this in last night's earnings call. >> china rebalanced broad base across the products and so we just had a phenomenal quarter on ipad, on the mac, on services, on apple watch, on iphone. i mean, we literally were firing on all cylinders. >> all right

can that growth continue into next year? joining us, tom from the information, and ryan from idc. thank you both for joining us. the china issue has been a big problem for them, hasn't it? is this enough to quell concerns in that area >> too soon to tell. investors are sensitive to anything happening in the china market because it's essential to apple's growth, specialically t specifically the iphone. building stores and distribution in the area. if you listen to what apple has to say, they see the recent quarter and success there as a result of that investment. but i really do say it's too soon to tell with only one quarter to look at. >> what do you guys see as you look into 2018 for the chinese phone market >> right, so as a whole, we look at the chinese phone market rebounding slightly to about 5% growth, but we're actually expecting apple, themselves, to grow much faster than the market, itself so we're expecting close to 20%

growth for apple with its iphone business in greater china in 2018 >> ryan, if they do, i see you guys have their current market share somewhere around 12.5% in that country which is not huge and it's one of about five major players. what would 20% growth do are you increasing market share dramatically if they can achieve that >> right, so the 12.5% just to be clear is globally that's where apple kind of stands right now i think what we're seeing with apple with regards to china is their last real big cycle was around 2015 when they launched the iphone 6 right? we saw enormous surge in buyers in that market, and then things slowed down. so what we're looking at is basically those buyers that are on either a 2 1/2, 3 year refresh cycle that are ready to purchase iphones as tim cook mentioned, there are also strong sales from ipad and also mac as well but just to be clear, most of these sales are happening in the tier 1 cities,

not the rest of the population where most of the mass volume goes >> yeah, tom, maybe the market share in china is actually lower than that figure that i cited earlier. so, again, what is the significan significance you mentioned how china is essential for apple. how essential is it? >> well, very much so. i mean, if you look at where their growth is coming from, it's in these developing markets like china, like india i mean, you saw apple really struggling the last couple quarters in terms of gaining market share huge amount of competition from smartphone makers domestically so if they can prove that there is a sustainable quarter-over-quarter growth of market share within china, then they should look pretty solid, but it really takes more than one quarter to prove that out. >> and also, tom, the numbers that they put up in terms of the iphone projections, what was your feeling about how much clarity tim cook could give about how many of those devices bill be produced and sold in total for this company >> yeah, i mean, there were strong projections in the last

earnings call and so it looked fairly solid as far as that goes, but, you know, there's a lot of questions, especially with the iphone x about manufacturing and whether they can meet demand. there's obviously supply chain questions given all the complex components there so, you know, if we can see, again, them being able to meet demand, and if china does, in fact, show strong demand for the iphone x, it's very, very possible this growth could be continued. >> all right guys, thank you. tom and ryan as apple closed today nearly at an all-time high. berkshire hathaway is out with its earnings a little earlier than usual dom chu has those numbers. >> the numbers are still big even on a per-share basis, kelly. let's get you to the numbers here first of all, berkshire earnings were share is a narrow miss in terms of earnings per share. it's $2,0 the94 per share we should also point out that many of the adverse impacts of

the hurricanes and earthquake in mexico took their toll on the numbers in terms of berkshire's numbers overall. they say $3 billion in pretax underwriting losses on those three hurricanes, harvey, maria, irma, as well as the mexico earthquake, that translates into $1.9 billion on an aftertax basis. another number that a lot of investors like to look at with regard to berkshire earnings is the book value per share they note that in this past quarter, book value per share was $187,435 in terms of every class "a" share. we smouhould point out the shars closed -- no trading of the aftermarket for size reasons we're seeing a little action in the berkshire "b" shares down a percent on 23,000 shares of volume also want to point out as we go through these numbers we did see a revenue beat from berkshire, $60.5 billion. analysts were looking for $59.79 billion. we're going to parse through this more, the details and

numbers. for right now, it looks like an earnings miss, a revenue beat. $3 billion in terms of where ioff write-offs, underwriting side of things because of natural disasters and that's where we get to those numbers for book value, kelly back over to you guys. >> dom, thank you very much. let's get reaction to the numbers from "fast money's" guy adami. >> kell, i think it's okay given the hurricanes, what my man dom chu said, i don't think it's a disaster at all. i'm doing back of the envelope stuff. book value was up 9% from the beginning of the year indicates the old man hasn't lost a lot of his fast ball. you stay the course. can't trade it, you know what i'm talking about? stay the course. >> you could trade the bs. >> i'm kidding around. come on. work with me >> i thought -- i just wanted to clarify, make sure i'm foll following, guy you're ahead of me let me catch up with you and do a little takeaway, don't you think, while you're here in mike santoli's absence, mike,

thanks for joining us. nervousness in the private equity industry over the gop tax bill they think it could stunt leverage buyout buyouts. is the selloffs in names like apollo justified, guy? >> you a fan of r.e.m., great 88 '80s ban of course you are. they sang a song you want to hear the name of the song "everybody hurts." "everybody hurts." you know, private equity hurts, too. too bad. they'll figure it out. is the selloff overdone? if you look, apollo was up 1.5%. kkr up 2% today. both of the stocks have been on a nice trajectory higher so in my world, it's not a selloff at all if they're complaining, they got other things to complain about we're all in the same boat there, people. >> speaking of apollo, the company's reportedly looking to buy kidoba from jack in the box. given the recent stumbles and changing tax rules we just mentioned, guy, does that deal make sense to you? >> i think it makes a lot of sechb sense, makes a huge amount of sense.

why? qdoba is the shining star, it's the diamond. it's the cherry on top of everything that jack in the box has. if you look at the reason that jack in the box has performed as well as ithas, it's because of what's going on at qdoba put that on top of all the misses and all the bad things going on at chipotle, cmg, and if i'm jack in the box, i'm not eager to sell qdoba at all. >> that's what i was going to say. >> without qdoba, jack's got jack. >> jack was higher, but i think i know where your sympathies lie. next, pizza hut is not seeing a hit in sales because of issues with the nfl. recall the papa john's, big nfl sponsor, lashed out pat the league for not handling the anthem kneeling well and hurting sales. pizza hut's parent company yum brand have seen an uptick in sales from live sporting events like football. what's the trade, guy? >> i think papa john's messed up a little bit i understand they are a sponsor

of the nfl but i would submit, i might be wrong, i typically am wrong, that papa john's needs the nfl more than the nfl needs papa john's. so in my world, don't bite the hand that feeds you. and the play all along has been domino's comes out dpz, a steve grasso favorite. why? because they are now a technology company my advice to papa john's is -- >> they've been saying that for a couple years now. >> -- take a step back and rethink this whole thing you're doing. >> or maybe invest in technology if that's what's working. >> maybe invest in technology. >> finally, kneelsnielsen is reg netflix ratings which netflix doesn't accept it shows 15 million people watched the season premiere of "stranger things" and season as a whole averaged around 9 million. should netflix embrace the transparency >> netflix should spl embrace the technology and be transparent. what does it mean for the stock? despite what people say, netflix has a mote

that stock will continue to go higher "stranger things" or not >> all right it closed at $200 on the button. guy, thank you very, very much appreciate it. that instant reaction to berkshire, too catch guy and the rest of the "fast money" crew at 5:00, with one of the street's biggest bitcoin bulls, why he's become cautious on the cryptocurrency. broadcom reportedly interested in buying qualcomm. both stocks are rallying on these reports. find o if utthe deal makes sense for shareholders of both companies, right after this. tim. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. ( ♪ )

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news update, let's get over to sue herera sue? >> thank you very much, kelly. here's what's happening at this hour, everyone congressional democrats continuing their assault on the house republican tax reform bill senate minority leader schumer blasting the bill for hurting working families adding that even republicans don't like it >> republicans are ashamed of this bill. that's why they don't want hearings, that's why they don't want discussion. that's why they don't want to allow their constituents to let their voices be known. and if this were my bill, i'd be ashamed of it, too the man suspected of fatally shooting three people in a colorado walmart store made his first appearance in court. 47-year-old scott ostrem is being held without bond. he could face the death penalty or life in prison. prince william attending the graduation of almost 200 new london police officers

he was accompanied by the lobd london police brass. afterwards he met with graduating officers and also the police liaison officers who responded to that grenfeld tower fire earlier this year kelly, back down to you. have a great weekend. >> thank you, you, too sue herera at headquarters. news breaking this afternoon, broadcom is considering making a bid for qualcomm would be a cash and stock deal for art $70 a share. qualcomm close ed hered higher . joining us on the phone with his reaction is tom sepenzis tom, are you excited about this deal >> well, it certainly makes a lot of sense, and it's in, you know, the historical keeping with, you know, growth through acquisition strategy so i certainly think that it would be great for both companies if they could get it done, but i think there might be problems getting it actually closed

>> antitrust problems? >> yeah. i would think that there's going to be a number of issues qualcomm's already run into some issues with the acquisition of nxbi you know, that will only complicate matters with braoadcm trying to buy qualcomm what happens with the nxbiing a b decisi acquisition. does that go through, get dropped? there's a lot of moving parts between the two companies. that will make it difficult. >> yeah. absolutely nxpi has some expertise in automotive, as i understand it so if they were to be jettisoned, does that worry you, as a qualcomm bull here? >> no, actually it wouldn't worry me at all. as far as broadcom and qualcomm merging, there's tremendous synergies between the two companies and surprisingly not a lot of overlap you know, you got qualcomm which makes the base bands of the chips that go into the phones.

you know, the brain, so to speak, of both the radio and the processer. then you've got the radio frequency side of it so from that perspective, there's really no overlap. it would be a really sinnynergic merger similarly, you know, broadcom is much more involved in the server business most of that is using intel-based components whereas qualcomm is the first company to actually get an arm server, you know, into at least sampling so there would be no overlap there, again, a very nice synergy for the combined company. >> we saw that intel was lower today by more than 1%. why do you think it would be selling off on this deal, if it was? >> why would intel be -- well, it would, you know, the combined company would have a pretty similar market cap, right, to intel, so it would give them a rival that was equal in size and probably a lot bigger in terms

of scope of what they could do so, certainly would put some pressure on intel. i don't know that it would be, you know, direct on their processer business or their server business, you know, in the near term which is still 85% of their combined business so i don't really see this being a real problem for intel as a direct threat. >> and tom, i'm wondering what you think about the $70 share price that's been mooted when this company traded at $80 a few years back >> yeah, certainly lower than what qualcomm would probably want, yuou know, i can't speak t whether that's the real price or even if there's going to be a bid.bs sense in the current environment in terms of premiums we've seen other semiconductor companies go for over the last couple years and, you know, but obviously qualcomm shareholders will probably want to try and sweeten that deal >> does it make sense for them to sell below $80, below

something above that again, that was something that was achieved a couple of years ago. why is it now seen that this company might be less valuable than it was? >> well, clearly, you know, they've got a lot of legal issues going on right now. not only with the american and the taiwanese and the korean free trade organizations, but also with one of their biggest customers, apple so that has really eaten into their market cap, it's eaten into their value it's got a lot of people concerned over their business model, and what the eventual impact will be i, myself, have an outperform on the stock because i have covered the -- you know, i've covered qualcomm for the better part of 20 years and i've seen them run into these legal issues before with erickson, with nokia and others and generally speaking they come out victorious pretty much every time. so i do think that they will,

you know, likely emerge better than people are expecting here with this apple dispute. >> all right we'll see what emerges with broadcom, too. tom, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you appreciate it. >> tom joining us from northland capital markets. meantime, retail jobs are one of the biggest weak spots in the october jobs report we got this morning up next, we'll look at whether problems with retail could end up putting the broader economy at risk. several popular employee tax perks will be repealed under the proposed republican tax plan in congress we'll tell you what they are includes corporate gyms. see how you could be impacted later on "the closing bell." nci, and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. it really scared him out of the markets. his advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldn't be able to retire until he was 68. the client realized, "i need to get back into the markets- i need to get back on track with my plan." the financial advisor was able to work with this client. he's now on track to retire when he's 65.

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welcome back closing out the week with gains mostly across the board on wall street russell was lower by a point, but the s&p was up eight the dow was up 23. the nasdaq was up 49 for the major averages, those are all record highs for the dow and s&p, their eighth straight week of gains. first time in four years the markets achieved that. retail sector losing 8,000 jobs last month. we could hear more about job losses next week when we start to again earnings from a number of retail companies. what impact could the jobs drought have on the overall

economy? joining me no u, chris lowe from ftn financial. cnbc contributor from jay rogers niffen wwe did i get that right anyway, jan niffen is here thank you both for joining us. chris, let me begin with you i mean, eight months out of nine now is a big deal in terms of retail streak of job losses. how much of an impact do you think that's going to have more broadly? >> well, i think it will probably be isolated to retail the thing is that consumption lost quite a bit of steam early last year. dropping from 4% growth to about 2.75%. but it's been stable since then. so this ongoing weakness, 66,000 jobs lost, so far this year, is pretty clearly a reflection of something going on within the industry and i suspect it's the amazon effect. you know, it's online retailers eating their -- >> yeah. >> -- lunch.

>> and amazon, itself, you know, its head count is expanding. chris, that's the interesting thing. you know, in a way, now especially that it's bought whole foods, its head count is, it's getting up there. there are 541,900 employees. i think walmart has 2 million. but amazon, itself, is turning out to absorb a number of these job losses, don't you think? >> oh, i think that's absolutely right. and remember, they are included in that survey, so take amazon out and they've added about 25,000 this year, and the losses amount to 90,000 in the rest of the industry if you've seen an amazon fulfillment center, they are enormous, and they're very lightly staffed. i think that's the key to what's going on they are simply way more efficient at getting goods out to customers with fewer people this is a huge productivity gain in this sector, but while we're in transition, it is costing

jobs >> so jan, what do you think this sets up for as we get into retail earnings season >> i don't think that's an issue. the retailers, themselves, aren't as healthy as they should be the consumer is very healthy the consumer's got better job pictures than in a long time not much in rising wages but a little bit of that unemployment is low, employment is high. energy costs are low the consumer is in good shape. we're going to see fine growth in the fourth quarter in consumer sales what we're not going to see is in the retail sector i'm used to which is the brick and mortar sector they're going to continue losing jobs closed 2,500 stores this year. only open bd 3,000 that's going to cause job losses as your other guest just said, when amazon adds a person in the distribution center, three people go off the floor of retailing because that's how much more efficient the distribution centers are and they're not running stores so, yeah, they continue to grow, and then the retail jobs continue to shrink but it's not something wrong with consumer.

>> is it something that from an investor point of view knowing how challenged some of these companies are, is it better for them to shrink their head count in order to try to just stay as profitable as they can while they contend with what sounds like a secular decline >> yeah, there's no option, they have to shrink, be more efficient, have to try to make money online which is really hard after all, amazon doesn't make any money online, either, so it's very difficult in that environment. so they keep shrinking the base trying to be more efficient on cost and moving more and more business online which is low profitability. so it's a difficult place to be if you're a brick and mortar retailer given that. >> yeah, we're going to get a slew of them headed our way next week nordstrom's, macy's, jcpenney. we'll let you go and see what happens. thanks for joining us. donald trump embarking on his 12-day tour of asia today. there's a lot at stake for business both big and small. why hoards of small and medium-sized companies are hoping trump's trip is a success

coming up. on this jobs friday, we want to hear your job interview horror stories e-mail us, facebook, tweet you can see it all there i may read your tale on air in today's "closing bell" mailbag we'll be right back.

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accusations including sexual harassment and rape, including a recent one from actress paz who accused weinstein of raping her twice in her apartment in 2010. >> we have an actual case here we're happy with where the investigation is by now. mr. weinstein is out of state. we would need an arrest warrant to arrest him. right now we're gathering our evidence we continue to do so every day >> police say they just became aware of this latest accusation on october 25th. we reached out to weinstein's representatives but have not yet heard back guys, back over to you >> thank you, julia. julia boorstin well, there's one key issue many u.s. companies want president trump to bring up on his trip to asia we'll tell you what that is right after this fees? what did you have in mind? i don't know. $4.95 per trade? uhhh and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee?

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house republicans revealing their tax plan yesterday and some employee perks could be at risk if it passes. ylan mui joins us with the rundown. hmui joins us with the rundown. >> reporter: kelly, it's the little things that will get you. we've been talking about the corporate rate, is there a connection between profits and wages. sometimes you just need to know can i still direct my parking. the answer, at least right now, is probably not, because this bill takes a whack at a lot of popular perks. transportation fringe benefits is one of them another biggie, tuition assistance under current law, your company can give you up to $5,250 al annually to pay for school you aren't taxed on that benefit and your employer doesn't have to pay taxes on it either. that would go away in the pending bill kelly, let's say you get a dream

job at apple, not that this isn't already your dream job, you couldn't deduct your moving expenses they're even coming out of employee achievement awards, that's when they give you a gold watch, that's now taxed too. this is all just a numbers game. there's at least $30 billion of revenue over the next decade and getting rid of these perks, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.4 trillion price tag. but republicans don't have a lot of wiggle room as they try to make the math work, kelly, every billion counts >> if i have to pay taxes on the toaster, i don't even want it. >> reporter: the toaster oven. >> yeah, i'm trying to remember what i even picked out ylan, these all nighters are catching up with you >> reporter: the tax tsunami is taking a toll on my throat, apparently >> fascinating stuff, anyway

i had no idea so much of this was at stake how important are these deductions >> reporter: this is a good reminder of how far this bill is you don't know which tiny provision is going to crop up and become potentially the poison pill in the entire bill there's another provision that's getting a lot of political buzz, that's one that allows you to begin contributing to a 529 for your unborn child. it seems like it makes sense, you want to start saving as soon as possible for college. but it raises a lot of thorny moral questions about when does a fetus become a person. so that's another one, seems like a small line item, but it's becoming really politically divisive >> i had no idea, ylan, thank you very much. holy cow all right. ylan mui, really appreciate it meanwhile, steve mnuchin and gary cohn are hunkering down in

washington to work on the tax bill, and president trump is on his way to asia. >> reporter: ivanka trump and her husband jared kushner will be accompanying president trump to japan, south korea, and china. national security adviser h.r. mack master said the u.s. trade representative would be leading economic talks during the trip commerce secretary wilbur ross will be bringing two dozen ceos for a trade mission to china also spotted on the plane, dina powell and matt pot tenger people like drew greenblatt, whose baltimore steel company sells racks to walmart and merck and checks google images to check on chinese competitors

every week who steal his intellectual property. >> think about if someone were to stick their arm through the internet to steal your car or your tv. you would be outraged. that happens to us every day, they're stealing our intellectual property through the internet and representing it's themselves, and growing jobs in china rather than us growing jobs here in baltimore city >> reporter: tensions running high in the region the north korean threat on the horizon. trump will spend the weekend in japan. a flyover was called by north korea a move that was seeking to ignite war >> and it threatens to overshadow the whole trip. thank you, kayla tausche surprising truths ouabt the hiring process, those details are next so what else is new? how's your mother?

umm..she's doing good. she needs more care though. she wants to stay in her house. i don't know even where to start with that. first, let's take a look at your financial plan and see what we can do. ok, so we've got... we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

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a new poll is revealing some pretty surprising things about the job interview process.

eric chemi has more. >> there are embarrassing and outright illegal moments people have had when interviewing for jobs people have had their minds go completely blank 28% of people completely forgot the name of the person across from them doing the interview. 10% arrived late 4% had food stuck in their teeth. people have dealt with illegal questions. almost everybody has been asked something about their age or marital status or medical history or even their plans to have children. and 10% of those under 30 have admitted to being flirted with or being asked a suggestive question during the interview. nearly three out of ten people actually admitted to lying in an interview or an application for things like skills, prior work experience, even illegal drug use. remember, that's 28% of people who admitted to lying. i'm sure the real number is a lot higher

catch more awkward job interviews on cnbc's upcoming show "the job interview" which premiers next wednesday at 10:00 p.m. wednesday >> we've been asking, of course, for you to send in your awkward moment it was minus 20 degrees, i wore a pantsuit, hr told me i didn't get the job because i didn't wear a skirt to the interview. it was the late '80s, she said, but poor janet jean says, the gentleman was yawning this much, i thought, what's it going to be like working here rick tweets, the interviewee, a person being interviewed, who wasn't rick, talked himself silly, suddenly said i assume i didn't get the job, and let himself out, and we sat in silence. that feels like something we might see on the series. a millenial moment of panic. >> or texting in the middle of the interview. >> that's interesting, checking the phone during the interview, is that a yes or a no? >> i once had an interview where

he said you have the job, then he kept talking another 45 minutes, and i just sat there not sure what i was supposed to say. >> i had an interview where the interviewer kept talking to someone else, and then months later i found out i got the job. "fast money" starts right now, live from the nasdaq market site i'm michelle caruso-cabrera. intel is about to come to a screeching halt, we will explain why. plus a twitter employee goes rogue and targets trump. is the president's twitter feed the biggest risk for the rally then later, the bitcoi