Jul. 5--The stock market's performance for the first six months of the year was a tale of two quarters. The first, apocalyptic. The second, downright bullish.

Take the Dow Jones industrial average. It fell 13.3 percent the first quarter and rose 11 percent the second quarter. Or the Asbury Park Press/Bloomberg 75 index -- it fell 20.3 percent the first quarter and rose 12.7 percent the second quarter.

By the end, the stock market's indexes turned in a mixed performance, leaving at least some investors, burned by the collapse of 2008, ready to test the investment waters again.

"Being an investment advisor, I'm happy the economic apocalypse that might have happened didn't happen," said Robert Giunco Jr., vice president of George McKelvey Co. in Sea Girt.

Investors during the first six months rewarded companies that performed even slightly better than the bleak predictions they faced. And they punished companies whose futures remain murky.

Experts said it was a sign that companies were searching for their footing amid a devastating recession that began in December 2007. And while they think the worst is over, they aren't convinced that there's no trouble ahead.

"I still think we're not out of (the woods), and we're being very cautious," said Dominic DiPiero of Newport Capital Group in Red Bank.

The results from the first half of the year: The Asbury Park Press/Bloomberg 75 index and the Dow Jones industrial average both fell about 3.8 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1.78 percent. And Nasdaq gained 16.4 percent.

It was a performance that gave investors some glimmer of hope. But at this point, many are simply hoping to recover a portion of what they lost. Nick Singelakis, 65, of Jackson, estimated his stock portfolio declined 40 percent from its peak. "I had no choice" but to stay in the stock market, he said. "I lost too much to get out."

Here is a closer look.

Winners: Nasdaq, which includes many smaller companies, advanced, in part, Giunco said, because smaller companies can adapt to economic swings much easier than their larger counterparts.

The stock of Whole Foods Markets Inc., an Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain that has a store in Middletown and is listed on Nasdaq, more than doubled, even though it lost $32.3 million in the first quarter.

Its net loss wasn't as bad as analysts predicted. Giunco said investors were betting the economy was on the path to recovery and consumers one day soon will spend more money on organic, higher-priced groceries. But analysts also warned clients in June that the stock was too high to buy.