Splits rarely affect overall market conditions, unless its a well supported split and honestly i don't forsee that being the case for ethereum theirs just not that much demand to create a big hard fork issue, i get the feeling we'll be stable for the most part
Actually this hardfork is not about split in coin but just an upgrade. Following ETH, Tron has also announced hardfork today.
Thats right. No free coins this time but advanced technology on Ethereum which is good news and would mean more adoption for Ethereum blockchain.