Stocks began the day with minor gains following a solid earnings report from Apple (AAPL). The company helped lift the tech heavy Nasdaq to a new all-time high. Despite the strength of the Dow member, that blue chip index lagged all day and struggled to stay above the flat line. However, the Dow still rose on a weekly basis, furthering its weekly winning streak. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., nonfarm payrolls increased 261,000 in October, which fell short of assumptions, though that was seen by some as due to a continuing impact from hurricane disruptions. The unemployment rate slid to 4.1% from 4.2%. The trade deficit widened 1.7% to $43.5B in September, largely reversing the narrowing that had been reported in August. Markit’s services index was unchanged at 55.3 in the final October print. ISM’s services index edged up to 60.1 in October, beating estimates for a small decline. Factory orders rose 1.4% in September. In energy news, Baker Hughes reported that the U.S. rig count fell 11 rigs from last week to 898. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Apple rose 2.6% after the company’s revenue and earning strength in the just completed quarter surprised investors and analysts given that its sought-after iPhone X had not even hit stores until today. Additionally, the company’s holiday quarter sales guidance was a bit higher than Street expectations, possibly easing some recent jitters about supply of the X and demand for the 8 and 8 Plus… Meanwhile, Qualcomm (QCOM), which is in a heated fight with Apple, saw its shares jump 12.7% to $61.81 after Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal both reported that Broadcom (AVGO) is weighing a possible deal to acquire the rival chipmaker. Bloomberg said that Broadcom plans to submit an offer of $70 per share… In other M&A news, Reuters reported that CVS (CVS) intends to finalize a merger deal with Aetna (AET) by early December, and that the deal will probably value Aetna “significantly” above $200 per share… Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) advanced 2.1% despite the fact that the coffee giant’s quarterly revenue missed analysts’ expectations and it lowered its long-term outlook. However, several analysts noted that the quarterly results and guidance were both better than feared… Equifax (EFX) said that its board’s special committee concluded that trading of company securities by certain executives following the detection of the company’s cybersecurity breach and prior to public disclosure of the incident was not “insider trading” as “none of the four executives had knowledge of the incident when their trades were made.” MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers after reporting quarterly results were Molina Healthcare (MOH), which rose 14.7%, and Arista Networks (ANET), which gained 11.2%. Among the notable losers after reporting quarterly results were GenMark (GNMK) and Pandora (P), which fell 41.3% and 24.5%, respectively. Additionally, Activision Blizzard (ATVI) slipped 3.4% following the video game maker’s earnings report. INDEXES: The Dow rose 22.93, or 0.1%, to 23,539.19, the Nasdaq gained 49.49, or 0.74%, to 6,764.44, and the S&P 500 advanced 7.99, or 0.31%, to 2,587.84.