Expensive week for world’s richest people

NEW YORK: It’s been an expensive week for the world’s richest people.

Mark Zuckerberg was nursing the biggest fall after losing US$3.2 billion (RM12.58 billion) as large cap stocks disappointed for a fourth straight day on Thursday last week.

Losses for the Facebook Inc chief executive officer topped those of Spain’s Amancio Ortega and Mexico’s Carlos Slim, who were both down US$2.4 billion as of 1pm here.

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

The world’s 500 richest people had lost a combined US$107 billion last week, more than the entire market capitalisation of Goldman Sachs Group Inc or Lockheed Martin Corp.

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

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had slid about 3.5 per cent on Thursday as President Donald Trump invited a trade war and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell fuelled talk the central bank plans to quicken the pace of monetary tightening.