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NEW YORK—Wall Street ended a grueling first half quietly Monday, closing mixed as investors again based their trades on what has become the dominant force in the market: the price of oil. The major indexes closed out the first six months of 2008 with double digit declines, and are perilously close to the levels of a bear market.

This was the worst first half for the Dow Jones industrials since 1970, when the country fell into recession. The more diverse Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes had their worst first half since 2002, when Wall Street was still suffering thr...