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

Garrett Baldwin

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:

Garrett Baldwin

About the Author

Browse Garrett's articles | View Garrett's research services

Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, and consultant with degrees from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Indiana University. He is a seasoned financial and political risk analyst, with a focus on stocks, hedge funds, private equity, blockchain, and housing policy. He has conducted risk assessment projects for clients in 27 countries, and consulted on policy and financial operations for some of the nation's largest financial institutions, including a $1.5 trillion credit fund, a $43 billion credit and auto loan giant, as well as two of the largest Wall Street banks by assets under management.

Garrett joined Money Map Press as an economist and researcher in 2011, specializing in alternative strategies with an emphasis on fundamental and technical analysis.

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