Dow Jones Today Falls 17 Points in Volatile Trading, but HPQ Gains 4% on Split News

Dow Jones Today, Oct. 6, 2014: The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 17 points today (Monday) in a busy day for the tech and healthcare sectors. The S&P 500 Volatility Index
(VIX), the market's fear gauge, was up 6.25% on the day.

Here's the scorecard from today's trading session:

Dow: 16,991.91, -17.78 (-0.10%)
S&P 500: 1,964.82, -3.08 (-0.16%)
Nasdaq: 4,454.80, -20.82 (-0.47%)

Now, here's a breakdown of today's top stories and stock performances:

• Layoffs on Tap: In a surprise announcement on Monday, Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) said it will split into two separate companies and lay off nearly 5,000 employees. The firm will split into two listed companies, one a personal computer business and the other a manufacturer of printers. The deal is set to take place in 2015. The company said shareholders would own a stake in both companies through a tax-free transaction. Hewlett-Packard shares were up more than 4.5% on the day.

• Merger Mania: Social networking giant Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) completed its $22 billion acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp. The deal jumped an additional $3 billion thanks to Facebook's recent surge in share price.

• Ebola Breakout: Shares of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Nasdaq: TKMR) slipped by more than 18% today on news that the first U.S. patient to contract Ebola had received experimental treatment from a drug manufactured by Chimerix Inc. (Nadsaq: CMRX), which was up more than 4% today. Tekmira shares had soared since the deadly outbreak began in Africa and the company received permission to test existing Ebola patients with its own experimental treatment.

• Goldman Grief: The Libyan Investment Authority has accused Goldman Sachs Corp. (NYSE: GS) of having an inappropriate relationship with the fund. According to reports, the sovereign wealth fund believes that Goldman encouraged members to invest more than $1 billion on faulty derivatives positions. Goldman spokespersons have said that the accusations have no merit. Don't miss: Capital Wave Strategist Shah Gilani explains what the secret "Goldman Sachs Tapes" really mean…

• Solar Slump: Solar company shares plummeted on Monday on very high volume. Shares of Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE ADR: YGE) dropped 1.6%, SolarCity Corp. (Nasdaq: SCTY) shares fell by 2%, and Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) fell 2.9%.

Now our experts share some of the most important investment moves to make based on today's market trading – for Money Morning Members only:

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