Reno, Carson City warily watch Wall Street

For a minute or two these days, northern Nevada business stops for a quick check on the stock market's latest volatile move.

Here is a sampling of how the stock markets' strong downward move this summer and its subsequent bounce back have affected northern Nevada: The folks who operate the state's retirement system for public employees watched the market gyrations closely you would, too, if you had $13 billion in investments but last month's sell-off didn't worry them.

They're taking a good look at the numbers early this month and assess- ing what they expected to be only modest damage.

Only about 35 percent of the state's retirement funds are invested in U.S.

stocks, said Ken Lambert, an assistant investment officer for the Public

Employees Retirement System.

Larger pieces are invested conservatively in real estate and in U.S.

and foreign bonds, Lambert said.

Even the portion invested in common stocks leans toward conservative issues as PERS works to achieve an 8 percent return with as little risk as possible.

This means the state missed out on some of the big run-up in stocks in the late 1990s.

Still, Lambert says, PERS' holdings still performed well enough to weather the 0.5 percent negative return during the 12 months ended in March while maintaining an average 8 percent return since its 9 "Losing a trillion dollars on Wall Street doesn't help," says Incline Village real estate broker Tom Clydesdale with a laugh.

"It's not part of my marketing campaign." The effects of the market's downturn have been limited to the higher end of the market, says

Clydesdale, president of Coldwell Banker Incline Village Realty.

"A lot of the big money lost big money," he says.

The market for high-end homes at Lake Tahoe already had been weakened by the collapse of the dot-com bubble Clydesdale says that's been the biggest single factor hurting sales of luxury homes as well as the general weakness of the U.S.

economy since Sept.

11.

Some home prices around the lake have been reduced in recent weeks, but Clydesdale says that's a common practice in the waning days of summer.

Sellers often want to close a sale in the fall rather than carry it through the winter.

Sales of high-end homes aren't tied to fluctuations in mortgage rates because those buyers can pay cash or have other financing alternatives.

Instead, Clydesdale says, sales of expensive homes at Lake Tahoe may be strengthened by investors' desires to move into real estate as an investment alternative to the stock markets.

Students at the University of Nevada Reno may feel the effects of the market's downturn as the income from the university's endowment shrinks.

But it's unlikely that conservatively managed endowment will show many ill effects.

Bill Kemp, special assistant to the president for development and alumni relations at UNR, says earnings from the endowment are distributed on a formula based on the portfolio's performance over the previous 12 quarters.

That, he says, limits the effects of any short-lived move in the markets.

Still, Kemp acknowledges, "You can't be in the stock market without this having some effect." Dan Gettings, general sales manager at Lexus of Reno, encourages his sales staff to simply avoid discussion of the stock markets' gyrations when customers walk in the door.

"The people who are buying highline cars are aware of the stock market," he says.

He acknowledges buyers have been somewhat less confident in recent weeks.

That means it's time to go back to the basics of good salesmanship.

"Stay true to the business," Gettings tells his staff.

"Sell the benefits of the vehicle.

Sell the product.

Sell the dealership.

Good things will come."