NEW YORK (Reuters) - As the U.S. stock market heads into the last week of the year, what was inconceivable just 12 months ago is now a stark possibility: 2008 could be the worst year ever for Wall Street.
The U.S. market's most tracked benchmark, the S&P 500, is down 40.6 percent since last year's close with only three trading days left in 2008. Given the market's hair-trigger volatility this year, that is just one bad day away from surpassing 1931's drop of 47.1 percent -- the biggest yearly decline ever.
