An estimated $93 billion were erased from the fortunes of the US’ richest billionaires on September 13 after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) “carnage” triggered by new inflation data, Bloomberg reported.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report ignited an investor sell-off as the worse-than-expected data revealed that inflation in August was 8.3 percent. Accordingly, the S&P500 dropped 4.3 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 3.9 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite plummeted 5.2 percent.
As shares witnessed their biggest drop in more than two years, top US fortunes registered their ninth-worst daily loss ever.
Jeff Bezos, the founder and former president and CEO of Amazon, with a net worth of around $136 billion as of September 2022, lost the most among those tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The wealth of the second-richest person in the world plunged by $9.8 billion.
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk saw his net worth drop by $8.4 billion. The fortunes of Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Steve Ballmer all declined by more than $4 billion, according to Bloomberg.
US businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffett and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates lost $3.4 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively.
13 September 2022, 20:01 GMT
The losses came in the wake of a massive sell-off in the US stock market. Jittery investors sprung to action under speculation that higher-than-expected consumer price index data would cause the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more aggressively.
The current loss for billionaires comes after they saw $78 billion shaved off their fortunes in August after an eight-minute speech from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell at the Kansas City Fed’s annual policy forum sank stocks.
Powell reiterated that the US central bank would keep raising interest rates to reduce inflation. In the aftermath, Elon Musk’s saw $5.5 billion erased from his wealth. Jeff Bezos lost $6.8 billion - the most of anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Overall, in the first half of 2022, the world’s 500 richest people lost $1.4 trillion in what is the steepest six-month drop ever for the planet’s wealthiest.