Manic and increasingly desperate dealmaking gripped Wall Street on Wednesday as U.S. stocks plummeted to three-year lows amid new signs of distress in the global financial industry.

Morgan Stanley (MS.N) was discussing a merger with regional banking powerhouse Wachovia (WB.N), the New York Times reported. CEO John Mack got a phone call from Wachovia on Wednesday but is also pursuing other options, the paper said.

“In this market, anything’s possible. It seems like the market wants the investment banking model to disappear,” said Danielle Schembri, bond analyst covering brokers at BNP Paribas in New York.

Washington Mutual (WM.N), the country’s largest savings bank, put itself up for sale, sources said, confirming a New York Times report. Potential suitors include Citigroup (C.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N) and HSBC (HSBA.L), they added.

And top UK mortgage lender HBOS Plc (HBOS.L) struck an all-stock deal with Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L) to create a 28 billion pound ($50 billion) mortgage giant.

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