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* World stocks edge up after huge losses for year

* U.S. Treasury yields remain near 50 year lows

* U.S. dollar sees best year since 2005 (For winners and losers of 2008, double click [ID:nLU75321])

By Clive McKeef

NEW YORK, Dec 31 (Reuters) - World stock markets ended on an uptick for the year on Wednesday, after some bourses registered their worst annual losses in history.

Global stocks as measured by the MSCI world index .MIWD00000PUS ended up 0.76 percent for the day and posted their first monthly gain in seven months, but lost 43.36 percent for the year.

About $14 trillion in market capitalization was erased from world stock markets in 2008 in the wake of the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"It has been a shocking year, hardly anything was spared in the carnage," said Michael Heffernan, strategist at Austock Group in Australia.