World’s richest lose $444 billion after hellish week for markets

Last week was an expensive one for some investors, even for billionaires.

The combined fortunes of the world’s 500 richest people fell by US$444 billion as the coronavirus continued to spread -- and spread fear -- rattling equity markets worldwide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 12%, the largest five-day slide since the depths of the 2008 financial meltdown, in a rout that vaporized a lot more than $6 trillion from global stocks.

The drubbing a lot more than erased the $78 billion in gains that the 500 wealthiest persons had amassed since the start of year through the other day, in line with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The world’s three richest people -- Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault -- incurred the largest losses, with their combined wealth dropping about $30 billion.

Elon Musk, the world’s 25th-richest person, rang up the fourth-largest weekly loss -- $9 billion -- as shares of his Tesla Inc. slid after a steep climb to begin the entire year. He’s still up $8.8 billion in 2020 and has a net worth of $36.3 billion.

Health officials are struggling to support the virus, which can result in a potentially deadly pneumonia-like illness in a minority of patients and spread from other people who look healthy. The World Health Organization has so far refrained from declaring it a pandemic.

Read more: Nowhere to cover from coronavirus as rout hits all sectors

About 80% of billionaires on Bloomberg’s wealth ranking are actually in the red this year, including those whose businesses have already been embroiled in the global drama. Carnival Corp. Chairman Micky  

Arison lost $1 billion this week as the world’s most significant cruise-line operator held tourists aboard one of its ships in Japan, where at least five passengers have died.