It will be interesting to see how Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) shares react Wednesday after a report suggested the company was considering a breakup.

The report came out after Tuesday's close and, of course, after Dell (DELL) said it wants to go private in a $24 billion deal led by founder Michael Dell.

The HP news, which came from the Quartz site, was good enough to send shares soaring briefly as much as 11% to $18.43 at 4:30 p.m. ET. But additional reports suggest HP's board isn't close to making a decision. The AllThingsD blog reported one of its sources said HP directors are "not actively studying a plan to break the company up."

That was enough to knock the stock down a bit. The stock ended at $17.05 when after-hours trading ended. It had closed at $16.61 in regular trading, up 43 cents. 

Texas doesn't have redwood forests, a spot on the Pacific, Hollywood or a team in the last Super Bowl or World Series. But it doesn't have California's taxes either.

 

 

Compared with earlier generations,  current college students face a very different world once they enter the workforce. Unemployment remains high, entry-level jobs are scarce, and many available jobs require skills that simply did not exist 20 and even 10 years ago.

Recent graduates are also having more trouble paying off their college loans, and many are being threatened with legal action from their alma maters for nonpayment of tuition and other bills.

The University of Pennsylvania filed six lawsuits against former students in November, demanding repayments from $13,000 to $27,000. A university spokeswoman told the Daily Pennsylvanian that students who graduate or leave the university with an outstanding balance will see their debt transferred to the school's collections office. 

Remember American International Group (AIG), that little company that was run nearly into the ground and had to be saved with a $182.5 billion taxpayer bailout?

The company's former CEO, Hank Greenberg, remembers it all a little differently in his new book, "The AIG Story." Bailout? What bailout? His theory on what saved AIG is this: "It was saved only by the loyalty and tenacity of its valiant workforce," he writes, according to Bloomberg.

The 87-year-old Greenberg is still stewing over the bailout. In fact, he's suing the government, claiming that the bailout violated the constitutional rights of shareholders.

Through his asset management company Starr International, Greenberg owned 12% of AIG before the bailout. 

When Michael Dell returned as CEO of the technological company he founded in 2007, The New York Times reported that he was excited to face the challenges ahead. Less than a decade later, the company's continued struggles have led him to take Dell (DELL) private in a $24 billion deal, the largest since 2007.

As head of a private company, Michael Dell will have the opportunity to tinker with his business model away from the prying eyes of Wall Street. Success, though, is not a given. The Round Rock, Texas, company was built on the personal computer, a business that has been eroding for years. 

To make matters worse, Dell has been unable to regain the top spot in the PC market that it lost in 2006 to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). 

Updated: 4:40 p.m. ET.

On Monday, stocks took a bit of a drubbing, prompting worries that the big rally this year was running out of gas. Tuesday's answer is: Not yet. Stocks are rallying strongly, recovering most of Monday's loss.

The prompt for the rally appears to be Dell's (DELL) announcement that it is going private in a deal valued at some $24 billion. The deal will include investments by private equity firm Silver Lake Management and Microsoft (MSFT), the publisher of MSN Money.

At the same time, earnings from food processor Archer-Daniel-Midlan​d (AMD) topped estimates, and Computer Sciences (CSC) raised its 2013 guidance.

Shares of Walt Disney (DIS), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and online travel company Expedia (EXPE) were all higher on quarterly results reported after the close. That should help the market on Wednesday. 

It looks like the nation's run on guns has slowed to a jog.

After background checks for gun purchases peaked at a record 2.78 million in December, the Associated Press found Tuesday that demand across the National Instant Criminal Background Check system decreased 10.5% to 2.48 million in January. That's still the second-highest number of requests ever and higher than the totals in all but one month in 2012.

That said, Americans are still buying up a whole lot of guns in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school killings and the national gun control debate they prompted. Wal-Mart (WMT) and Bass Pro Shops have limited sales of ammunition at their stores amid increased demand, leaving local law enforcement divisions low on rounds as a result.