By mid-afternoon Tuesday, many Vicksburg residents who have money invested in the stock market were wondering what if any move should be made to protect those investments.

Dan Daily of Edward Jones Investments in Vicksburg said, if you own stocks in good, profitable companies, the thing to do now is nothing.

“I had one client call and tell me, ‘I just want to make sure you have me invested in the companies that make Excedrin, Tylenol and Pepto Bismol because they are going to sell a lot of products today,’ ” Daily said.

Some of his clients had called seeking reassurance about their investments, “but not as many as I expected,” he said. “Pretty much everyone is staying the course. It’s not a surprise that the market has pulled back by about 10 percent or a little more than that now. A 10 percent volatility in the stock market is considered normal fluctuation.”

The Dow Jones industrial average was down as much as 565 at one point Tuesday. Analysts said the market was reacting to another dip in the price of a barrel of oil, this time to $27 a barrel. That’s the lowest price oil has been since fall of 2003.

“This is something that happens from time to time,” Daily said. “The information that we consider to be most accurate leads us to believe this is a correction, and not a 2008 scenario or a 2001 scenario. This would not be the time to sell. We’re actually investing — buying. People who have money who are not currently invested can use this as an opportunity.”

The guiding rule for investors should be to own stocks that are in profitable companies and, over the years, as the company has earnings in profitable years, the stock ultimately will grow over time, he said.

“Human emotion tends to put stocks at high levels, even higher than their fair market value. And, human emotions cause stocks to fall below their fair value,” Daily said. “In this world of constant information via television, internet, cell phones, a volatile stock market is going to happen. That’s not going to change doing forward. We’re always going to have large swings.

“But if you own high quality, good, profitable companies — stocks and bonds — and are willing to hold those over several years, that’s your best opportunity to increase wealth over time,” he said. “You’ve heard the adage buy low and sell high. Historically, that’s not what people do. If you follow that adage, now is an opportunity to buy.”

People will continue to buy food and clothes and oil and gas and electricity and medicine, Daily said.

“Companies that provide the best goods and services will continue to do well and you would not want to sell your stocks at a point in time when the price is depressed. My clientele generally is invested longer timer and are looking for moderate risk. Typically, in my 28 years doing this, my clients have rode these ups and downs through the cycle. The swings we are seeing right now are part of the human emotion, which can change from being overly optimistic to overly pessimistic.”