A new bail-out of US insurance giant AIG, the hopes of the embattled US car industry for a bail-out and China's huge $586 billion stimulus dominates markets' news today - - see separate story in box below.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Michael Dell last year promised innovative new consumer products to generate "product lust" and spark his company's turnaround effort. But in the run-up to the holiday sales season, Dell Inc. has been slow to deliver on that promise.

Dell has decided not to launch an ambitious consumer product it hoped to release before the holidays -- a digital music player tied to online entertainment software -- says a person familiar with the matter.

The company also has lagged rivals this holiday season in releasing new notebook personal computers, which make up the biggest segment of the consumer market.

The Journal also says today that regardless of how long economic troubles persist, Congress may seek in the next year to require all hedge funds above a certain size -- say, with $25 million or more in assets -- to register with federal regulators. Registration means regularly scheduled examinations and more government oversight of risk controls and behavior in stock, debt and derivatives markets. Right now, registration is voluntary.

"Large hedge funds are expecting increased regulation, probably more in line with the closer regulation of broker dealers,"said Leor Landa, a partner at law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell who represents hedge funds and private-equity firms.

Asian stocks rallied Monday for the first time in three days after China announced a $586 billion package to boost growth in the world’s fourth-largest economy.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 3.1%.

China's CSI 300 jumped 7.38%; Japan's Nikkei 225 added  5.81% and India's Sensex 30 gained 5.79%.

Asia-Pacific - benchmarks

Finfacts Reports

Obama prepares for $1 trillion deficit; AIG seeks additional $27 billion; Carmakers await $25 billion lifeline; Wall Street prepares to axe 70,000 more jobs

Asia-Pacific Business & Finance News W/E November 09, 2008: China announces huge $586 billion economic stimulus package

Irish Construction: Job shedding intensified in October; Steep decline in commercial projects

Almost half of foreign companies based in Ireland regret decision; Dell supplier Flextronics to axe 118 jobs in Limerick

DCC pre-tax profits rise 15.7% boosted by largest division DCC Energy

In Europe Monday, the Dow Jones 600 has risen 2.65% and most markets are up.

In Dublin, Irish shares are up 4.81%.

The 4 banks have risen between 4 to 7% and C7C is up 21%.

DCC is up 6.5% after reporting strong interims - - see link in box above.

Goodbody Stockbrokers economist Deirdre Ryan commented today that the rospects for Euro-area remain dim: "The impacts of the ongoing financial crises continue to make their way into the real economy. In this light, the actions taken by central bankers last week underline the fact that caution has now been thrown to the wind in relation to inflation concerns, as the risks of deflation continue to mount. This sea change in views of global central banks, especially in relation to the ECB, stems from two main issues; tighter financial conditions and a deteriorating economic environment, both of which were illustrated in data releases on Friday.

On the former, the Euroarea bank lending survey for Q3 points to ongoing tighter financial conditions, with the net percentage of banks reporting that credit standards for loans to enterprises had tightened, rising by 22 percentage points to 65%. This is set to continue to feature in the quarters ahead also, with a net two thirds of banks expecting conditions to tighten further in Q4. The prospects for any improvement in the outlook for growth remain poor in this environment of constrained credit, a point illustrated by the OECD leading indicator, also released on Friday. It touched its lowest level in the series in September at 92.9 (data dates back to 1961) with the closest low of 93.2 recorded in the mid-70s. Against this backdrop, it is clear that last week’s ECB rate cut will be followed up by further policy easing at next months meeting. However, given the tone of the data as highlighted above, a much lower level of interest rates is the least that is required at the current time."

Davy economist Rossa White commented today: "China has unveiled a massive stimulus package. On paper, the investment package is worth 15% of GDP, but we don't know how much the authorities were already spending (except that it was a lot). Estimates suggest that it could boost growth by 2 percentage points next year. This follows similar packages in many countries already (not counting the substantial initiatives aimed at financial institutions). Much more of this is required globally to prevent the deepest global recession since World War II.

The US will soon follow with its second fiscal stimulus package in a year. This one may be geared more to investment rather than to tax cuts. Tax cuts in the second quarter stopped a slide into recession at that time, but consumer spending has now rolled over for the first time since the end of 1991. That trend needs to be broken because a retrenching US consumer is bad news for the rest of the world. Even huge stimulus packages in China will not compensate for their loss of exports as a result.

In our Weekly Market Comment (November 10th), we argue the case for a similar stimulus. A tax rebate in time for Christmas may pay for itself ultimately due to increased spending activity. Importantly, we need to break the sharp slide in household spending. More evidence of that will be unveiled in Friday's Irish retail sales for September."

Standard & Poor’s, the world’s leading index provider, announced last week that the S&P GSCI (Goldman Sachs Commodity Index) declined 28.20% in October, registering its worst month in history. The Index was originally launched by Goldman Sachs in January of 1970. Year-to-date through October, the Index was down 27.51%.

“The S&P GSCI continued to suffer from the lower tide impact of global economic weakness in October, as well as from the escalating credit crisis,” says Michael McGlone, Director of Commodity Indexing at Standard & Poor’s and author of the S&P GSCI Commodity Perspective posted monthly to http://www.spgsci.standardandpoors.com/.

“Production reduction stories were rampant in most sectors, as many commodities declined below marginal production costs, and financing became more difficult to obtain.”

All 24 S&P GSCI components declined in October with the S&P GSCI Energy Index registering the worst return declining 31.2% on the month. The S&P GSCI Unleaded Gas Index was the worst performing component in October, declining 39.5% for a year-to-date loss of 40%. The S&P GSCI Copper Index was the worst performing metal in October, declining 35.6%. The S&P GSCI Gold Index fell 18.4% on the month.

The S&P GSCI Agriculture Index declined 17.3% in October as many farmers chose to store grain and wait for better prices rather than sell at current levels. The S&P GSCI Livestock Index was the October star sector performer, declining only 9.38% during the month.