Stock markets suffer worst year since Great Depression

Stock markets in 2008 suffered their worst year since the Great Depression, but no market bellwether was as battered as The Examiner Top 10 portfolio.

The Dow Jones industrial average sunk 33.8 percent in 2008, its third-largest decline ever and the biggest decrease since 1931. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 38.5 percent, its worst loss since 1937. And the Nasdaq composite index, created in 1971, recorded its worst year with a 40.5 percent loss.