The abrupt resignation of HP (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd late Friday had little effect on the rest of the tech sector on Monday, as the Nasdaq ended the day solidly higher.
HP’s shares tumbled 7.4 percent during Monday’s trading session, a modest improvement from Friday’s after-hours session when the news broke. 200 million share changed hands, 11 times the stock’s average daily volume.
But the loss of Hurd — who more than doubled HP shares in five years at the helm — did little to shake up the rest of the stock market.
Among HP competitors, IBM (NYSE: IBM) rose 1.4 percent while Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) shed 1 percent.
Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) gained 3.5 percent after the company reached a deal with Saudi Arabia over government access to data.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) were other winners, and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) gained 2.5 percent on news that its Skype stake could benefit from the company’s planned IPO.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) gained 3 percent ahead of its earnings report due out late Wednesday, while Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) fell by nearly that much on hard drive growth concerns.
The Federal Reserve will meet tomorrow, and while investors expect little news, they will be watching for any signs that the Fed could take steps to boost sagging economic growth.