EDITORIAL : UNCOMMON STOCK; SMALL INVESTORS' MATURITY HELPS STABILIZE STOCK MARKET.

BLUE Monday gave way to Fat Tuesday in the U.S. stock market.

After its biggest one-day point loss Monday, the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average rebounded Tuesday with its biggest one-day increase ever. The Nasdaq stock exchange index also had its largest daily gain in history, while the New York Stock Exchange set a record for one-day volume with more than 1.1 billion shares traded.

What's going on?

A significant portion of the blame for Monday's decline was pinned on professional investment managers who began selling in reaction to bad economic news in Asia and the crash of the Hong Kong stock market.

The striking recovery Tuesday was due to many factors including new reports that U.S. inflation will remain low for a while longer and interest rates probably won't be going up soon. Also, IBM Corp. announced a major buyback of its own stock, injecting confidence in the market.

Another important factor, we believe, was the stabilizing influence of the millions of average working Americans who participate in the stock market through their retirement-savings programs. They are looking for long-term results, not a quick buck.

Thus, while Wall Street portfolio managers were scrambling to sell Monday, small American investors who have put billions of dollars in the stock market through their retirement plans remained calm.

About four in 10 American adults own stocks either outright or through a mutual fund, and 89 percent of them are saving for retirement, according to a survey conducted this year for the Nasdaq stock market. Many of those investors stood their ground Monday and didn't panic.

One retirement fund consultant surveyed dozens of clients with 401(k) retirement plans and discovered that those smaller investors remained remarkably unshaken after Monday's decline, trading only about $92 million of the $50 billion in the accounts surveyed, even though 401(k) plans commonly allow participants to make daily changes in their accounts. ``It's surprising the volume is so low,'' said consultant Stacy Schaus. ``Most people are sitting tight.''

Regardless of Wall Street's ups and downs on any day, millions of investors on Main Street are looking 10, 20 or even 40 years down the road - and they remain confident in the prospects for long-term growth.

They know that modest increases in wages and benefits paid to American workers in recent years, although difficult, have demanded discipline on the part of both workers and employers. That has been a key factor in keeping inflation low and interest rates down.

Such traits of maturity and discipline are linked inextricably to the market recovery Tuesday. Ordinary men and women have proven once again that they are the real strength of America.