Investors are anxious for the year to close on one of the most brutal markets in history, which has rendered Wall Street's landscape nearly unrecognizable. All of Morningstar's diversified equity indexes declined precipitously during 2008, with the Morningstar U.S. Market Index down 39.3% for the year through Dec. 26.

Credit markets remain tight as the government's plan to buy up low-quality mortgage assets from banks has morphed into a strategy to recapitalize them through preferred equity purchases. Additionally, the Bush Administration underwrote a bridge loan () to the embattled Big Three U.S. automakers. Finally, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has lowered interest rates dramatically () in an effort to jump-start the economy. Still, lending remains tepid.

Bonds of all stripes, with the exception of Treasuries, got clobbered as investors demanded to be paid more for assuming higher risk. 2008's flight to quality punished Morningstar's high-quality corporate indexes, regardless of maturity, sending them down around 4% for the year through Dec. 26. Click here to read more.

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