Market Wrap: FOMC Gains Easing Confidence; PayPal Buddies Up; H-P Keeps Calm, Profits On; New Best Buy CEO's Pay

Market wrap-up for August 22nd

End of the Day: Dow Jones down 30.8 to 13,172.76; S&P 500 up 0.3 tp 1,413.49; Nasdaq up 6.4 to 2,073.67

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• The sum of parts is many: The FOMC released the minutes of its July 31st - August 1st meeting. For the most part, investors and traders are looking to the potential announcement of further easing soon.
  
  Key in the minutes was "Many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon..." This was in contrast to June's meeting, when only "a few members" though more stimulus would be needed.
  
  
• The U.S. drought hits far and wide: BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) ended the session higher following fiscal 2012 results, pressured some peers, with BHP cutting expansion plans.
  
  
• Take that, Dell: Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is higher in after-hours trading after meeting internal third-quarter EPS projects of $1, though sales were a little light. H-P also trimmed the top-end of its FY12 EPS outlook, but the top-end of guidance still met expectations.
  
  In particular, Personal Systems Group (PSG) sales fell 10 percent from last year. Desktop units were down 6 percent with notebook units off 12 percent.
  
  
• Yes, Cashier, I would like to 'Buy It Now': EBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) PayPal and Discover (NYSE: DFS) entered a new partnership Wednesday, bringing PayPal services to over 7 million locations where Discover is accepted in the U.S. Both stocks ended the session higher, eBay up 2.5 percent and Discover nearly 4 percent higher.
  
  
• Ka-Ching!: Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced the appointment of Hubert Joly as its next CEO on Monday and here's what some of his pay package entails: base of $1.175 million and $8.75 million long-term guaranteed cash award, and $3.75 million of performance awards.
  
  In total, Joly will bag about $32.3 million over three years if all criteria are met.
  
  
• Existing sales rise amid shrinking foreclosures: According to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing-home sales were 4.47 million in the month, a gain of 2.3 percent from 4.37 million in June. The Street was looking for a 3.2 percent gain to 4.51 million. June 2012 sales fell 5.4 percent.

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