PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Nov 3

Nov 3 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Treasury and banking regulators say as many as 1,800 publicly held institutions could apply for government investments in coming weeks, out of concern that failing to do so could make them losers in a banking sector reshaped by the Treasury's $700 billion rescue plan.

* Democrat Barack Obama enters Election Day with a solid, though narrowing, lead over Republican John McCain as both men sprint to the finish line of their long presidential race.

* Gary Gorton, a finance professor and jazz buff, is emerging as an unlikely central figure in the near-collapse of American International Group Inc (AIG.N). Gorton, who teaches at Yale School of Management, has a lucrative part-time gig: devising computer models used by the insurer to gauge risk in more than $400 billion of credit-default swap deals.

* The United Auto Workers union has so far said relatively little about a merger of General Motors Corp GM.N and Chrysler LLC, but now appears set to emerge as a key player in the fate of any deal.

* In a further sign of the U.S. government's get-tough approach with banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp threatened to seize Wachovia Corp WB.N last month if it didn't find a buyer, passed on an initial government-assisted takeover by Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and rejected an 11th-hour option that would have allowed Wachovia to remain independent, according to a Wells Fargo securities filing Friday.

* While oil may be at its cheapest in months, prices deep in the future reveal a market with serious concerns about long-term supply. As evidence, analysts point to charts of crude oil futures. Oil for delivery years from now costs more than oil for imminent sale, and the difference has widened.

* Foreign businessmen -- many of them potential investors -- say stalled talks over a long-term security agreement between Washington and Baghdad could delay or halt plans for investment in Iraq.

* Boeing Co's (BA.N) 27,000 union machinists began returning to their jobs Sunday as the company and its suppliers started digging out from a 57-day strike that shut down jetliner production and caused ripples throughout the aerospace industry.