♦ Better news from abroad today: global stocks rebounded overnight, with shares in Hong Kong climbing more than 14 percent. [CNNMoney]
♦ Goldman Sachs will name its new partners today; it's expected to be the smallest such group in the firm's history. [Telegraph, Clusterstock]
♦ The average hedge fund was down 8.4 percent in October. Layoffs in the industry are mounting: Glenn Dubin's Highbridge Capital is the latest fund to announce cuts, trimming 10 percent of the company's staff. [NYP]
♦ Barclays is seeking to raise $10 billion from Russian banks. [WSJ]
♦ Fidelity may lay off 4,000 employees. [Boston Globe]

♦ About half of the investors in T. Boone Pickens's energy-focused equity hedge fund have asked to withdraw their money; the fund is down 60 percent this year. [WSJ]
♦ GM would like a few dollars from the federal government, too. [NYT]
♦ Banks aren't prepared to fund Hexion's $6.5 billion acquisition of rival Huntsman, a deal that's been on the brink of collapse for months now. [Reuters]
♦ Former Milberg Weiss partner David Bershad was sentenced to six months in federal prison. [NYP]
♦ Discover, Visa, and Mastercard have settled their lawsuits. [Chicago Tribune]
♦ American Banker's "Banker of the Year"? That would be Ken Lewis of BofA. [DB]