With the end of the year fast approaching, it's time to start putting together "best of" and "worst of" lists for 2008. This entry is a little bit of both, but it's admittedly heavy on the "worst of." Among the current members of the S&P 500 Index (SPX), just 11 were sitting on a year-to-date gain as of the close of trading on Monday, November 24. Since Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) is unchanged, that means we have a whopping 488 securities sitting on a loss for the year.

Let's start with the bad news first. Among the worst-performing stocks on the SPX, the six top spots are claimed by stocks in the Insurance and Real Estate sectors. General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) has the dubious honor of dropping nearly 98% on the year, and -- not surprisingly -- American International Group (NYSE: AIG) isn't far behind.

This post is by a Minyanville contributor:

While regional banks are soaring on news that the U.S. Treasury is buying preferred stock in a number of banks, I would remind readers that while the Treasury's investment boosts "Tier 1 Capital", it does nothing for tangible common equity.

Why does this matter?

Because when losses come or common dividends are paid, they come out of common equity.

On Friday, when PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC) purchased National City (NYSE: NCC), PNC announced that thanks to the U.S. Treasury's purchase of preferred stock, the bank's Tier 1 ratio was increasing from 8.2% to 10%. At the same time, however, the bank disclosed that its tangible common ratio declined from 3.6% to 3.5%.

While it may not feel like it today, some day soon capital quality, not just capital volume, is going to matter.

The comment that many in the media made throughout the day was that things could have been worse. Some markets in Asia and Europe closed down over 8%. The DJIA futures showed the US market might be down over 600 at the open.

It could have been worse, but for anyone who owned stocks is was awful. Many financial shares and some tech stocks were down close to 10%.

A look at the numbers:

DJIA: 8,377.12 down 3.61%
Nasdaq: 1,552.03 down 3.23%
S&P 500 876.48 down 3.48%

National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC), a regional bank that many analysts thought was in trouble, was sold for much less that where it traded yesterday. The buyer was PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC). The modest purchase price of $5.58 billion sent NCC down over 20% to $2.13.

The banking system has been crumbling for over a year, but last month's collapse of American International Group (NYSE: AIG) -- which prompted an $85 billion government takeover -- suggests that insurance is not immune from the problems. As a reminder, AIG got snared in the $62 trillion Credit Default Swap (CDS) market whose growth was spurred by McCain advisor, Phil "Americans are Whiners" Gramm.

And as insurance crumbles, banks keep suffering. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and National City Corp. (NYSE: NCC) are both hurting. How much?

• Bank of America's earnings plunged 68% to $1.18 billion, or $0.15/share -- missing by 60% analysts' forecast of 62 cents. Bank of America will raise capital by selling $10 billion of common stock and slashing its dividend in half from 64 cents to 32 cents. One analyst cut the bank's 2009 earnings estimate to $2.50 per share from $3 per share -- this is well below the $3.12 per share from a Thomson Reuters analyst poll -- and lowered his price target by $2 to $26.

• National City Corp. and its National City Bank both suffered debt downgrades from Fitch. For instance, Fitch slashed the bank subsidiary's long and short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to A- from A. And it lowered the bank and holding company's Individual rating to C from B.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the end-of-day bounce was just shorts afraid of a worldwide rate cut.

The shorts must have just gone on "ease watch." You can tell what that is. Some devastating news will come out, say, about once-proud Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) (Cramer's Take), some ratings downgrade, and boom, Britain is hit for a full percentage point decline. Then, as if by magic, it rallies almost back to unchanged as the shorts don't want to be hung before worldwide rate cuts.

I always thought this behavior was curious because I don't know of a short-seller who thinks that intervention even matters, or says it doesn't matter, for that matter!

In fact, though I think it can matter not so much to our country, it does matter to those countries in Europe that really would be doing well if money weren't so tight. Our markets lost a ready source of cash and business when Europe went away, particularly upon the disappearance of China from the world's economies.

Now, of all of the new measures I like hearing, the commercial paper intervention is intriguing as the government substitutes itself for buyers for this important funding. But again, I come back to the notion that we can't really be two sides of everything, can we?

Today was almost a totally depressing day of a bear market, but by the end of the session, it turned out to be less terrible -- just another bad day rather than a total write-off.

Hopes and rumors of coordinated global rate cuts or some form of coordinated intervention helped stabilize the stock market somewhat by the end of the day. However, the initial shock of Dow below 10,000 rapidly became Dow at 9,500+ before the market recovered sharply from being down 800 points.

The bad thing about today's major selloff is that there was no sense of capitulation and no sense that panic had engulfed Wall Street. Instead, this is just orderly panic where looters and vandals cue up to take action.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 9,955.50 (-369.88; -3.58%)
NASDAQ 1,862.96 (-84.43; -4.34%)
S&P500 1,056.89 (-42.34; -3.85%)
10YR T-Note 3.426% (-0.218%)

National City (NYSE: NCC) was one of the most active of the worst performing banks. Shares were down 27% at $2.54 in the minutes right before the closed.

U.S. stock futures fell Monday morning, indicating a sharply lower open on Wall Street as the world's financial crisis rather than get a boost from the $700 billion rescue plan, seemed to have deepened in Europe. This as well as economic fears depressed world markets. Most major global markets plunged at least over 4%.

Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) -- After a lower court decided in favor of Citigroup (NYSE: C), a state appeals court blocked the ruling late Sunday night, thus tilting the battle over Wachovia in favor of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Both banks want Wachovia for its deposits and branches. Despite that, WB shares are down about 18% in pre-market trade, WFC's down 2.7% and C's down 3.7%.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) -- a subsidiary has agreed to modify loans to tens of thousands of borrowers -- previously Countrywide Financial clients -- in 11 states that would enable them to keep their homes, or even help them move to a new home. If all 50 states were to join, the settlement could provide $8.7 billion in relief to 400,000 borrowers. BAC shares are down 4.3% in pre-market action.

National City Corp. (NYSE: NCC) shares are down over 22% in pre-market action as its debt was downgraded by Fitch Ratings.

U.S. stock futures were much higher Tuesday morning, following Monday's historic record plunge of 777.7 points in the Dow after the House of Representatives failed to pass the proposed $700 billion bailout plan. Investors hope a similar rescue package would pass soon and will tune in to listen to President Bush at 8:45 a.m. EST. Meanwhile, across the globe, Europe bailed out another bank, but markets in Europe are mixed. Asian markets, which close earlier, recorded mostly large declines. Also on tap today is data from the housing sector and a measure of Chicago-area manufacturing and consumer confidence for September.

It is also quite possible many have come in to buy at these prices for at least a short-term gain. If the VIX volatility index is any indication, then stocks may climb in the next few weeks.

Of stocks in focus:

There were two big trades on Wall Street today: One was the bailout trade, which included financial stocks obviously, but other than the big banks, investors also went after the second-tier firm -- the smaller, regional banks. The other big trade was the economy. As the U.S. and global economy slows down, retailers, techs and a variety of materials and industrials will suffer. Investors showed their concerns over the economy today, hammering down many of these stocks down.

Here are a few big losers from today:

Financials - obviously, financials depended on the bailout plan more than others, at least in the immediate future:

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) declined 17.6%, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) slumped 15%. Citigroup (NYSE: C) declined nearly 12%, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) sank 12.5% and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) plunged over 15%.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was the Dow's biggest loser today with a 17.5% drop thanks to Citigroup cutting profit estimates of the credit card company.

Second-tier banks declined much more:

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) slipped over 27%, CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) lost 25.5%, Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) fell 43.6%, FirstFed Financial Corp. (NYSE: FED) tumbled over 25%, First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN) slipped 35.7% and National City Corp. (NYSE: NCC) tumbled 63.3%.

Analyst upgrades:

• Oppenheimer upgraded shares of National City (NYSE: NCC) to Outperform from Perform on valuation as they believe the bank is not seeing a mass exodus of depositors.
  
• Wachovia upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE: BIP) to Outperform from Market Perform due to what the firm sees as the company's solid cash flow growth outlook, strong balance sheet, and discounted valuation.
  
• Baird upgraded Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) to Outperform from Neutral citing valuation and improving 2009 prospects from 8800, 8600, and 7100 products and better Opex management..
• Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Cowen.
  
• UBS raised Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Borg-Warner (NYSE: BWA) was raised to Buy from Hold at Keybanc.

Analyst downgrades:

• Merriman downgraded shares of TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) and Bankrate (NASDAQ: RATE) to Neutral from Buy to reflect concerns about display advertising trends and the company's above average exposure to the financial vertical.
  
• Baird downgraded Monaco Coach (NYSE: MNC) to Neutral from Outperform and Thor Industries (NYSE: THO) and Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO) to Underperform from Neutral citing valuations and checks that indicate "dreadful" fundamentals.
  
• RBC Capital downgraded Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to Sector Perform from Outperform citing weakening consumer spending, reduced visibility, and risks to valuation. The company's target was lowered to $140 from $200.

Wachovia (NYSE: WB) is recently trading at $4.25 in pre-open trading, below its close of $10. WB October 10 straddle was priced at $7.20 on September 26, November 10 is at $8.40 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

National City (N&SE: NCC) is recently trading at $3.64 in pre-open trading, below its close of $3.71. NCC's share price declined 25% after JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) purchased Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) banking assets. BMO Capital says: "NCC is not in the same situation as WM was." NCC October 4 straddle is priced at $2.45; November 4 straddle is priced at $2.75; according to Track Data, suggesting large price fluctuations.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

In this series, we take a look at the 25 stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have turned in the worst performance during the past decade -- what went wrong, and what happens next.

The suspense is over -- National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC) is the fourth and final Ohio-based regional bank to appear on our list of laggards. Based out of Cleveland, National City appeared to be faring well in the late 1990s. The bank had just completed some key acquisitions, and the stock was locked in a long-term uptrend. However, the next decade would prove considerably more challenging.

What went wrong? At number 6 on our list of SPX underdogs, NCC gave up 87% of its value from June 30, 1998 through June 30, 2008. The stock peaked at $40 in November 2005, and then edged sideways ... until it ran headlong into the subprime tsunami.

The first warning from NCC came in March 2007, when the bank said it would retain $1.6 billion previously set aside for non-conforming loans. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NCC said it had recorded $11 million in write-downs through the first two months of the year, and suggested that a further write-down was "likely" before the loans were transferred.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal's "Fund Track" reported that some banks struggling to raise capital may sell their money management units. National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC) is selling its Allegiant Funds, Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) is considering selling its Fifth Third Asset Management, and KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) will possibly sell its Victory Capital Management unit.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that Andrew Cuomo, the New York state Attorney General, is preparing to file civil securities-fraud charges against UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), possibly as early as this week. Sources said the lawsuit may include allegations of malfeasance by senior UBS executives.

WEB SITES:

• Bloomberg reported that money manager John Paulson, the owner of Paulson & Co., is launching a hedge fund that will provide capital to financial firms which have been damaged by the housing crisis. Paulson, who wants to open the fund by December, used bets against the U.S. housing market to help him earn $3.7B in 2007.
• After U.S. lawmakers reached a deal on legislation to alleviate the housing recession, the House of Representatives will today vote on a rescue plan for Fannie Mae -- Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM) -- and Freddie Mac -- Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (NYSE: FRE). Representative Barney Frank said that the package, which increases the likelihood Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will get the authority to inject capital into the two, is "fully acceptable," Bloomberg reported.
• Oil trading losses forced SemGroup LP, which used to be America's 12th largest private company, to declare bankruptcy yesterday. Reuters noted that SemGroup LP's parent company is SemGroup Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: SGLP).

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says they're not just the opposite of longs -- they have the power to destroy companies.

Today will be riotously ugly. Today's a day where you could take down a Capital One (NYSE: COF) (Cramer's Take) or a Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) -- some bad credit card exposure there -- off of American Express (NYSE: AXP) (Cramer's Take). You can bang down Nat City (NYSE: NCC) (Cramer's Take) into oblivionville off of it and hammer Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) (Cramer's Take) to the point where you could hear the rumors fly of capital needs. Freddie (NYSE: FRE) (Cramer's Take), merciless Freddie, right at ya. Today's the day when the uptick rule would be the only friend to the notion of owning stocks without fear every minute, fear that they will break your stock. Today's the day that the uptick rule can save Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer's Take) from $14 or lower. Today's why we need it.

Yet, every time I do a piece that talks about the need to reinstate the uptick rule or enforce the naked short laws, I am immediately greeted with the same nonsense: why should the longs get protection the shorts shouldn't? In fact, other than the usual gang of two -- Patrick Byrne and David Patch -- I don't get any positive feedback on these pieces like the one I did last night on "Mad Money."

For veterans of the finance world, the credit crunch is a mind-numbing conundrum. For example, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson -- who was a former Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) chief -- sometimes seems befuddled.

So, why not bring on board some other super smart finance folks?

Well, that's what Paulson is doing. In fact, this week he snagged Ken Wilson, who is the vice chairman of investment banking and chairman of financial institutions business at Goldman. Interestingly enough, he's been structuring some of the key banking deals over the past year, such as the financing of National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC) and advisory work for Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB).

True, Wilson's stint will be short-term (lasting until January 1st, when George Bush will leave the White House). But, for the US taxpayers, it's a pretty good deal. After all, he is going to forgo any compensation.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.