Strange things are brewing in the market today and Hewlett-Packard appears to have a spyglass trained on it. Market sources at Marketing Intelligence Center report that H-P’s stocks have risen fifty-cents today as their battle with Oracle rumbles and taxes in the UK might change their investments there.

On Ireland, H-P and Microsoft have teamed up to warn the country that raising taxes might make it harder for them to keep operations there. Bloomberg reports this as a meeting of minds,

The American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland warned the country that an increase in its corporate tax as part of a European Union and International Monetary rescue package may damage foreign investment, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Executives from Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Bank of America Corp. and Intel Corp. said a rise in the tax may damage Ireland’s “ability to win and retain investment,” the newspaper reported.

This comes along with all eyes looking for H-P’s CEO, Leo Apotheker, who seems to have turned up missing in the wake of the Oracle lawsuit over SAP. With the whole legal drama boiling over, and Oracle already having sufficient time to actually speak to him, it may be just that he’s a busy man—Oracle would like to differ otherwise.

Perhaps the market changes reflect expectations by investors that H-P is actually going to ride clear of the SAP lawsuit and keep their expanded operations. H-P stock has been seen falling for most of the last quarter, so at some point it has to plateau or start recovering, so this might be that point as well.

Needless to say, the market has a lot of distance to go, as does H-P before they’re out of the proverbial woods.