CNBC has reported that GM will not allocate any shares in its IPO for customers of Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW), TDAmeritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD), and E*Trade (NASDAQ: EFTC). That means retail investors are unlikely to get shares in the offering.

It should not matter much. The GM shares are overvalued at $30, which would mean the IPO, with over-allotments–bring in $15.6 billion.

GM wants the federal government’s share of the company’s ownership below 50%, so the price of the stock will be relatively aggressive.

The shares are not worth nearly $30. GM is still in trouble in the US market where it continues to lose market share to Ford Motor (NYSE: F), the Japanese, the Koreans, and the Europeans.

GM made $2 billion in the third quarter, but that won’t last.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Reuters:   The FBI is probing a cyber attack on Citigroup (NYSE:C).

Reuters:   China is asking the WTO to rule on US duties on tires.

Reuters:   The US mortgage industry will have trouble with new disclosure rules.

Reuters:   A Chinese mining company backed out of a deal to buy a part of a US mining company when the US government objected.

Reuters:   Banks with political ties got bailouts according to a new study.

Reuters:   The US pay czar will allow incentives for some AIG (NYSE:AIG) executives.

Reuters:   GM named Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) CFO as head of finance at the big car company.

WSJ:   A breach of Citi security by hackers, perhaps from Russia, caused the theft of millions of dollars.

WSJ:   Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may offer online TV subscriptions. Disney (NYSE:DIS) and CBS (NYSE:CBS) are in talks with Apple.

WSJ:   Stores are hoping last-minute shopping will make up for the weekend on which weather hurt sales.

WSJ:   Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) will shut down for a week to save money.

WSJ:   Redefault rates are hurting programs to help people with mortgage problems.

WSJ:   E*Trade (NASDAQ:EFTC) appointed a new CEO.

WSJ:   Altera named a new CFO from Sun Microsystems.

WSJ:   Alcoa (NYSE:AA) has joined a huge Saudi metals project.

WSJ:   Xerox (NYSE:XRX) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) are making money on corporate printing outsourcing.

WSJ:   GM will start to run assembly lines around the clock.

WSJ:   Honda (NYSE:HMC) will expand in China.

WSJ:   China Telecom will offer the RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) Blackberry.

WSJ:   R&D spending in the US is rebounding.

WSJ:   Dubai World started talks to restructure debt.

WSJ:   OPEC will probably keep oil prices steady.

NYT:   A business is growing to manage better returns from search ads on Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).

NYT:   The founder of Galleon pled not guilty to fraud charges.

FT:   Collapsed Lehman paid out bonuses.

FT:   China is moving to improve capital ratios at banks.

FT:   Bankers fear what many happen to some sovereign debt in 2010.

Bloomberg:   Sands China may have revenue of $5 billion.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Charter Communications (CHTR) Charter now has over $19 billion in debt and a market cap of only $486 million. It stock has recently fallen from $4.93 to $1.20. In the last quarter, Charter had $105 million in operatng income on $1.525 billion in revenue. Interest expense was $452 million. Charter is up against increasing competition from satellite TV and telecom companies. It does not have the capital it needs to upgrade its infrasturcture to stay in the competitive game.

Journal Register (JRC) The newspaper chain had operating income of $22 million last quarter on revenue of $121 million. Interest expense was almost $10 million. Long-term debt is over $700 million, and revenue at JRC and most newspaper companies is dropping at about 7% year-over-previous year. Its stock has fallen from over $8 to about $2 over the last year.

AMD (AMD) The chip company recently got a cash infusion of $622 from the Abu Dhabi government’s investment arm. When the money came in, the stock traded above $13. It has since fallen to $10.27. Wall St. is not convinced that AMD can compete with Intel (INTC), at least not with its current capital structure. In the last quarter, AMD had an operating loss of $226 million on revenue of $1.632 billion. Interest expense was $95 million. Debt, much of its taken on witht the purchase of graphics chip company ATI, now runs almost $5.4 billion. Early word is that the market is not impressed with the company’s next-generation Barcelona chip. AMD would need a huge turnaround in a short time to handle its debt problems.

XM Satellite (XMSR) XM does not like to talk about it, but it needs to merge with Sirius (SIRI) for financial reasons as much as anything else. The company has total liabilities of over $2.4 billion including long-term debt of almost $1.5 billion. Its subscriber growth rate has been slowing each quarter and in the September period it had an operating loss of $113 million on revenue of $257 million. Interest expense was $27 million. Less than two years ago, XM traded for over $30. It now trades at under $14. Imagine what would happen if the merger is killed.

None of these companies is likely to fail in the sense that it will cease to operate, but it is not hard to imagine that all of them will be forced to restructure, and common sharesholders are likely to get nothing.

Douglas A. McIntyre