NEW YORK - WALL Street shares edged higher at the opening on Wednesday of the final trading session of 2008, in sluggish trade capping the bleakest yearly performance since the Great Depression.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 41.82 points (0.48 per cent) to 8,710.21 and the Nasdaq rose 4.45 points (0.29 per cent) to 1,555.15 in the first exchanges.

ROUND ROCK (Texas) - COMPUTER maker Dell Inc. said on Wednesday that Michael Cannon, president of global operations, and Mark Jarvis, chief marketing officer, will leave the company as part of a global restructuring.

Mr Cannon will retire from the company effective Jan 31 and be replaced by Jeff Clarke, who's formal title will become vice chairman of global operations and head of Dell's business client product group.

JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S president promised further fiscal stimulus to help Southeast Asia's biggest economy withstand the global economic slump, and which may be funded in part by a return to the international bond market next year.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who faces elections in 2009, said the government would give priority to jobs and inflation, cut subsidised fuel prices further, and launch a new fiscal stimulus on top of spending plans set in the state budget.