♦ Treasury officials say as many as 1,800 institutions may apply for government investments in the next few weeks. [WSJ]
♦ GM hasn't been so lucky extracting cash: The Treasury has turned down a request by the automaker for $10 billion to help finance a merger with Chrysler. [NYT]
♦ Henry Kravis's KKR is delaying its plan to go public on the NYSE until 2009. [CNNMoney]

♦ Talks to sell Chrysler to Nissan Motor and Renault have been halted because Cerberus Capital, which controls Chrysler, would prefer to do a deal with GM. [DB]
♦ Lehman Brothers' No. 2, Bart McDade, is leaving Barclays by the end of the month. [NYP]
♦ Merrill Lynch and Bank of America are locking horns over the retention bonuses that BofA is offering to Merrill brokers. [NYP]
♦ Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management has hired Greg Coffey, formerly of GLG Partners, to be co-chief investment officer of Moore's European business. [Bloomberg]
♦ In the legal battle for the chemical company Huntsman, things just get worse and worse for Leon Black's Apollo. [WSJ]
♦ A struggling Circuit City plans to close 155 stores. [Bloomberg]
♦ Societe Generale says profit fell 84 percent in the third quarter. [Bloomberg]
♦ Is Facebook looking to raise cash more cash? [DB]
♦ If it makes you feel better, there are some billionaires losing a lot more money than you, like Warren Buffett, Kirk Kerkorian, Carl Icahn and Sumner Redstone. [AP]