World’s richest lose billions in week of market mayhem

03 Mar 2018

It's been an expensive week for the world's richest people, as the world's 500 richest people have lost a combined $107 billion - more than the entire market capitalisation of Goldman Sachs Inc or Lockheed Martin Corp – according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is nursing the biggest fall after losing $3.2 billion as large cap stocks disappointed for a fourth straight day on Friday. He was followed by Spain's Amancio Ortega and Mexico's Carlos Slim, who were both down $2.4 billion as of 1 pm in New York.

The fortunes of Alphabet Inc's Larry Page and Sergey Brin each dwindled more than $2 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index since markets opened on Monday.

The wealth of US billionaires fell the most, declining a combined $34 billion. Chinese tycoons saw $16 billion erased.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has slid about 3.5 per cent this week as President Donald Trump invited a trade war and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell fuelled speculation the central bank plans to quicken the pace of monetary tightening, according to Bloomberg.