I'm Julia Borsden, and you're listening to CNBC's Tech Tech. Our show is live weekdays at 11 a.m. Eastern, listen in.

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Tech Check. I'm Carl Kintania with John Ford and Dear Robosa. Today, markets are lower despite positive news that booster shots of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine

could protect against Omicron. As the NASDAQ comes off the best day since March is now the time to buy. We'll discuss. Plus, Apple hitting at another all-time high. We'll look at the stock and Tim Cook's secret $100 billion deal with China. Finally, between crypto and Instagram an awfully big day on the hill. We'll get the latest details as they happen this hour deep. Well, Carl, we're going to start with Apple hitting. As you said, another all-time high as the

broader market takes a breather, marching towards that 3 trillion market cap. And what a move for not

just Apple, but all of the mega caps. They are up 15% over the last month. As it continues to

underperform Apple, that is, Fang, Tech and the S&P by a wide margin, up 15% over the last month. As it continues to underperform Apple, that is, Fang, Tech and the

S&P by a wide margin, up 15 percent over the last month, while names like Netflix are down

three. There's also a new report from the information detailing the company's relationship

with the Chinese government, specifically looking at how Tim Cook back in 2016 negotiated to

invest hundreds of billions of dollars, $275 billion, into the country to quash a burst of

regulatory action against the company. And guys, this information report, perhaps not all that

surprising in terms of telling us that Apple and Beijing are tightly integrated.

There has to be some give back. But that number, John, $275 billion,

explains why perhaps Apple hasn't been sort of caught in the trade crosshairs the way other

companies have, even when you see that pressure on Huawei, the information article talks about how Apple and

Tim Cook have sort of held up their end of the deal by doing things like investing a billion

dollars and Didi where that doesn't really make any sense.

And people might have wondered why.

Now maybe we know.

Well, I think it made some sense at the time.

Didi was a consumer app early in sort of the mobile-driven economy in China,

and Apple was trying to be a primary mobile player in that market. I mean, I think over the

...