That'll be €2.5bn please: Dan reports that Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy's third largest, oldest, most loved and, ahem, only moderately state supported lender revealed its big survival plan on Monday. Walking dead update: The latest monthly performance figures for the hedge fund industry are out - and those funds still breathing had a good-ish month, says Dan. But performance ain't so hot as that put out by the industry's legions of undead predecessors. Those cautious equity hedge funds have put up less than half the return for the S&P 500 this year. Help to market-clear?: We previously looked at ways the scheme could be pretty risky for financial stability, and where it might not be a risk. Alexander rejects MPs" criticism of Help to Buy: The UK government defended its flagship housing policy on Tuesday as the official launch of the second phase of its Help to Buy mortgage scheme was overshadowed by a warning that it risked kindling a destabilising housing boom. CME takes on LME with aluminium contract: CME Group, the world's largest futures exchange, will launch an aluminium contract to challenge the London Metal Exchange's dominance of the largest base metals market as it suffers a storm of public criticism. China and Japan warn US on default: China and Japan ratcheted up pressure on the US to avoid an unprecedented US default on its debt as Democrats and Republicans continued their stand-off over the budget in the second week of a US government shutdown. National Grid warns on UK winter power supply: National Grid has insisted the UK will keep the lights on this winter, despite forecasting that electricity supply will be at its tightest in six years. Alcatel-Lucent cuts 10,000 jobs worldwide: Alcatel-Lucent will cut 10,000 jobs across the world, including 900 in its domestic French market, as part of a strategy to slash €1bn in costs from the lossmaking telecoms equipment maker, it confirmed on Tuesday. Markets: Markets were cautious and mixed as news of steady growth in China's service sector was counteracted by lingering fretting over the US government shutdown and lack of progress in averting a technical default by Washington. The FTSE All-World equity index was up less than 0.1 per cent as Europe's Stoxx 600 eased 0.1 per cent and index futures suggested the S&P 500 would dip 1 point to 1,675. Shanghai returned from a week-long holiday to rise 1.1 per cent - helping push Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.7 per cent - after a key gauge of the services industry showed the sector continuing to expand in September. Copper was up 0.4 per cent to $3.30 a pound and Brent crude was adding 6 cents to $109.74 a barrel.