United States.Wal-Mart.

UNITED STATES-THE WORLDS LARGEST FOOD RETAILER.

Wal-Mart Stores last week in Houston opened its first Supermercado de Walmart, which is part of the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer’s effort to reach more Hispanic consumers.

Wal-Mart converted a 39,000-foot former Neighborhood Market location for the new store, the Houston Chronicle reported. Among the changes in the Supermercado are a smaller frozen foods section, a kitchen that serves tacos and signs in English and Spanish, according to the Chronicle.

"I think it’s about being more relevant to the community you serve," Jose Antonio Fernandez, Wal-Mart vice president of business development, told the newspaper. "Especially in Houston, the demand for Hispanic products has been growing for us."

Supermercado de Walmart is scheduled to open in Phoenix this month as well. Wal-Mart also has plans to open Mas Club, a Hispanic-focused store patterned after Sam’s Club, in Houston this summer.

Swine flu fever spread to Wall Street last week, hitting food makers tied to the pork industry and airline stocks, while rewarding pharmaceutical companies. On the commodities market, the price for hogs for May delivery dropped 12 percent.

The fluctuations are seen as a typical gyration after an uncertainty is introduced to the market, as it was after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or Hurricane Katrina, but on a smaller scale, as the market moves from uncertainty to risk for investors.

Looking at the stock market over the past two weeks, since April 20, stocks in Hormel, Smithfield Foods and Tyson, food makers tied to the pork industry, fell by an average of 10.7 percent by April 27, the night the first U.S. swine flu fatality was reported.

Similarly, stocks for airline companies took a dive. American Airlines and United Airlines fell an average of 12.6 percent over the same period.

On the other hand, some bio-tech stocks went through the roof, with vaccine-makers Novavax and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shooting up 182 percent and 90.2 percent, respectively.

By the end of last week, however, those changes were already starting to moderate. The three food makers reclaimed more than 30 percent of their losses, while American Airlines reclaimed nearly all its losses and the two bio-tech companies gave back a quarter of their gains.

Such market volatility makes reacting to the Wall Street scares a dangerous thing for personal investors.

The Post-Tribune asked several investment professionals in the region for their thoughts on what the stock spins mean, and if it’s something people are better off ignoring. (Overall, the Dow Jones was up 82 points, or 1 percent, the past two weeks.)

"I would, yes," said a Crown Point investment planner who asked not to be identified so he could speak freely. "I am in my personal finances. I’m ignoring it."

He said it all goes back to earnings. Until he sees corporate earnings being dragged down by the swine flu virus, he doesn’t see it affecting their stock value. "If you were high on stocks two years ago, you should be really high on them now," he said.

Risk-reward calculus

Bill Poe, owner of Poe & Associates in Portage , said the volatility, for those nervous investors, is a good example of the importance of more stable investments such as annuities, bonds and certificates of deposit, which is his firm’s expertise.

At the same time, he hasn’t had any calls from nervous investors asking for a rebalancing of their portfolio.

"I haven’t had any customers call or even talk about the effects on their portfolio of the swine flu," he said. "It’s too early to even think about."

Jim Bobos, an investment adviser at Compass Financial in Valparaiso , said long-term risks are already built into the price of stocks. Airlines, hard-hit after the terrorist attacks and during recessions, are a tough sell. The risk is built in.

"By definition, when you enter into the stock market, you’re taking that risk. Long-term, the valuations get built into stocks," he said. And when those risks happen, "it’ll have a knee-jerk reaction for a couple weeks and then that’ll be it."

Virginia Shingleton, associate professor of economics at Valparaiso University , said the stock market is a useful economic indicator, but only over a long period of time.

The importance, she said, is not day-to-day, or even week-to-week fluctuations, but long-term trends over a period of months.