diana olick reports. >> reporter: dr. ben carson a neuroroe surgeon by trade told a senate panel that he was well qualified to lead the nation's housing agency and oversee its nearly $50 billion budget. >> a good ceo doesn't necessarily know everything about the business but he knows how to pick those people and how to use them and that is one of the marks of good leadership. >> but running an agency that directly effects the president-elect's business the real estate industry, was a top concern for massachusetts democratic senator elizabeth warren. she pressed carson to make a promise that no hud money would go to the trump empire. carson saide would use his moral judgment but would not rule it out. >> if there happens to be an extraordinarily good program that's working for millions of people and it turns out that someone that you're targeting is going to gain, you know, $10 from it, am i going to say, no the rest of you americans can't have it, i think logic and common sense probably would be the best way. >> the probl

i'm diana olick in washington. >> coming up doubling down. what some companies are doing to take entertainment into the next dimension. >>> here's a look at what to watch tomorrow. the employment report for december is due out. expectations are for the creation of about 185,000 new jobs. boeing releases its final delivery and order numbers for 2016 and a number of federal reserve officials is scheduled to speak on the economy. and that's what to watch friday. >> verizon says it's unsure now whether it will proceed with its acquisition of yahoo's core assets. the carrier is still stud yig the data breech that effected more than 1 million accounts. she cannot say with confidence one way or the other whether the deal will proceed. >> those verizon comments were made at the consumer electronic show, the world's largest technology exhibit. that wasn't the only thing that happened at the big conferences. julia boorstin reports from las vegas, the focus was on a few dom it instant high tech trends. >> new super thin tvs are on display, some of the b

diana olick what's a look at housing. first, steve liesman with an outlook for the broader economy. >> reporter: predictions for the economy in 2017 depend chiefly on how much donald trump's ambitious agenda gets through the republican congress. one prediction, we're about to see a whole lot more stock and bond market volatility when it makes to the making of economic policy than we've seen in the past. congress leaks like a sieve and everyone likes to talk. it goes without saying that congress will become at least as important as the fed at moving if not the whole market, certainly parts of it, like banking stocks when it comes to repealing dodd/frank or health care when it comes to obamacare. second prediction, the fed will hike twice, likely three times, depending on how quickly new fiscal programs get put in place. final prediction, growth will accelerate to the 2.5 to 3% range but more than that will likely elude the president, at least for next year. i'm steve liesman for "nightly business report." >> reporter: the

diana olick will look at what depot is up to on this historic day. good morning, diana. >> good morning, carl. home improvement giant home depot has been a leader on this rally, on an absolute tear since 2009, not despite the epic housing crash, but likely because of it. take a look. it's up over 400% since the dow crossed 10,000. so, what fueled the gains? well, just think about what happened during the foreclosure crisis. first, millions of homes were either taken back by the banks or abandoned by owners who could no longer pay. they fell into disrepair quickly, entire neighborhoods, in fact. then just as quickly, investors moved in, buying homes and doing mostly repairs and rehabs, not major renovations, but the kind of fixes that home depot products fuel, and that was the first surge. but then negative equity, which hit millions of owner occupants, kept those homeowners in place. they couldn't move without taking a loss. and when you don't move, you renovate, you fix, you upgrade. again, home depot's sweet spot. even now, as homeowners stay in pla

our diana olick. that's the show for today. i'm kelly evans, becky will be back next week.hank you so much for joining us. also next week, how ikea assembled a successful global business. keep it right here we are "on the money." have a great one and we'll see you next weekend. >>> hey there. did anything happen in the markets today? we're live at the nasdaq market site on this record-setting day. the guys are getting ready for the show. while we're doing that, here's what's coming up. >> it's done. >> yes. it's over now. >> not quite. the dow 20,000 was close, but if you missed it, we've got a way to catch up. plus -- that's what biotech stocks have done this year, but there's still one name you can still buy. we'll explain. and talk about money in the bank. >> take one of those big ve

diana olick will have more in a few moments. >>> two pieces of news involving boeing this morning. is planning to conduct involuntary layoffs of engineers, according to an internal memo that's been seen by reuters. no numbers were specified. boeing may also implement a voluntary layoff plan at various locations. separately, boeing was beaten out by rival airbus in new orders for 2016. a last-minute surge gave airbus 688 new net orders last year. that was 20 more than boeing. >>> okay. lawmakers kicking off confirmation hearings yesterday with alabama senators jeff sessions in his bid to become u.s. attorney general. this morning reports that russia is compromising material on the president-elect. a lot to go over and talk about. eamon javers joins us on what's on the agenda today. >> good morning, andrew. let's start with that news you just mentioned about russia. let's do this backwards. let's start with donald trump's reaction to it because it has been an astonishing 12 hours in american politics overnight. it tees up a big day today as donald trump meets the press at trump tower

diana olick is by her new home. >> six bedrooms, six bathrooms. they've had people fixing it up.er guy up at the window. we can't know whether or not she actually bought the house or whether or not she's renting it from the new buyer. we do noah cording to records that it was sold on december 22nd for $5.5 million. it was listed for 5.6 but it had been on the market for almost a year and there was a price change in the middle of the year. so probably a price drop according to redfin. this neighborhood is home to many, many, many swanky folks. please take a look at this map. you can see just how close they are to the obama family, which will be moving into a rental that has nine bedrooms. so a lot bigger, but you can literally walk to the obama's house in three minutes according to the google maps and you can bike there in one minute. we are very close to this and, of course, a truck going through. we're very close to the sidwell friends school which is right up wisconsin avenue from here and that's where the obama girls went. we do know that ivanka has three children with her hus

diana olick has the results. >> it's a solid beat for the los angeles based home builder.evenue up 21% in q 4 to $1.2 billion. 40 cents a share. backlog value up to the highest in ten years. orders up 20%. deliveries up 19%. and the average price of a kb home up 3% to $367,800. the ceo saying they're well positioned going into 2017 and said they'll be focused on the first-time home buyer and are well positioned in where they build. mostly in the west and south. areas like colorado and here in the d.c. area and north carolina which is a hot market as well. they do seem to be well positioned going into the next year, though the home builders in general should be producing more. we talk about that a lot. kelly. >> the analysts pushing for it too. only three buys on kbb before today. thank you. >>> president-elect trump skipped the subject of tax reform today, leaving some investors scratching their heads. the mortgage interest deduction allows bore wero borrowers to d amount paid on mortgages. >> you reduce the value of every home. let's bring in salem radio's hugh hewitt alo

let's get to diana olick with some housing sales numbers. well, sara, pending home sales rebounded up 1.6% for december for the month pretty much along with expectations, barely eked out a gain year over year up 0.3%. but the market is really divided both geographically and on price. homes priced above $250,000 were up 10% year over year in december, but those priced between $100,000 and $150,000 just up barely 2% and those priced below $100,000 down 11% year over year. you can see where the market is looking to where the homes are listed. there are a lot more listings of more expensive homes than there are of the entry level homes. geographically sales fell in the northeast and the midwest and rose in the south and the west. the west up 5%. remember, this is a measure of signed contracts in december. that's people out shopping for homes in december right after mortgage rates jumped pretty dramatically after the presidential election. we saw sales of newly built homes fall in december due to those higher mortgage rates because new homes have

diana olick has those numbers for us now. kayla, home builder confidence fell two points in january, december's seven pf point jump was revised down by one and add it up and the index now stands at 67, still well above the positive line of 50. the index was at 61 one year ago. so why the pullback? well, the reality of now rising mortgage rates and a potentially slow road to deregulation. builder costs have soared over the past few years thanks to the high cost of land, labor and increased regulation. labor's only getting tighter and new immigration policies under donald trump could make it worse. of the index's three components current sales conditions fell three points to 72. sales expectations over the next six months fell two points to 76. and buyer traffic fell one point to 51 very close to negative territory. all the numbers online cnbc.com. back to you. >> thank you very much, diana. an apparent aboutface from donald trump when it comes to corporate tax reform after calling the house gop border tax proposal too complicat

when it comes to housing, i think diana olick, so let's head east and see if she can give us some granularail on the december read for new home sales. diana. >> well, rick, it was a big disappoint, 536,000. the street was looking for a 583,000. and here's why the miss. remember, these numbers are based on contracts signed. that is people out shopping in december signing contracts, not closings, which is what the existing sales number is based on. what happened in december? mortgage rates shot up after the presidential election, so this is the first real read on how we're getting higher mortgage rates affecting home sales. and obviously it's not doing so well. also, we saw the median price of a newly built home go up 7.9% year over year to $322,500. take that jump in the price, add that higher mortgage rate and you're going to get people who are turning away from these homes saying i just can't afford it. now, we still have 5.8 month supply on newly built homes. we have very low supply on existing homes, so the new homes should be benefitting from that, but they're not. again, why not? affo

diana olick joins us with so many things viewed through a political prism, diana.urnal" was giving kudos for getting rid of this, like a political gift on the way out to the housing industry by the obama administration. >> right. you could look at it that way but you could look at it from the other side they are concerned about fha fund. i'm not doing politics i'm looking at numbers. quarter cut in annual insurance premium would have allowed 30 to 40,000 additional home buyers to qualify for a loan. that's according to national association of realtors. around 800,000 annual new f 1/2 a borrowers would have gotten a break which they sorely need given the spike in home prices. on a $190,000 loan, which was fha's average loan size last year the premium cut translates into about $40 per month or $480 per year. now, that may not sound like a lot, but the announcement of the premium cut two weeks ago, which wouldn't have gone into effect until this week sparked a 7% jump in applications to refinance loans with fha driving that. no surge in fha applications to buy a home.

dia dia diana olick joins us from washington. >> reporter: good morning, joe.tgage interest rates came down slightly to end the year but not enough to end the bleeding in the home loan market. application volume plunged 12% for the week ending december 30th, seasonally adjusted. that's compared to two weeks earlier. the mortgage bankers association did not report weekly volume last week but did include an adjustment for the christmas holiday. volume usually drops over the holidays, but this was bigger than usual. higher rates since the presidential election have hit re-fis hardest. applications to refinance fell 22% seasonally adjusted during the two-week period. here's a scary stat. they dropped by more than half in the last four weeks and ended the year 13% lower compared to a year ago. now, the average contract rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.39% from 4.45%. mortgage applications to purchase a home loan have also taken a hit from higher rates, though less severely. they fell 2% during the two-week period. back to you guys. >> diana, thank you ve