The recent global market downturn has had a profound effect on the fortunes of the World’s Richest Person. Concerns over a potential US recession and weak economic data have triggered a significant sell-off in the global stock markets.
As a result, the wealth of some of the richest people, particularly tech giants, has been heavily impacted. According to Bloomberg, the combined wealth of the 500 richest people decreased by $134 billion in just one day. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos saw his net worth drop by a staggering $15 billion as Amazon shares fell by 8.8 percent on Friday.
Other tech moguls also experienced substantial losses. Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost $6.57 billion, while Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Alphabet co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page each faced multi-billion dollar reductions in their net worth.
Current Top 10 Richest People in the World
| Rank | Name | Net Worth (in $ Billions) | Source of Wealth | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Elon Musk | $228 | Tesla, SpaceX | United States |
| 02 | Jeff Bezos | $185 | Amazon | United States |
| 03 | Bernard Arnault | $181 | LVMH | France |
| 04 | Mark Zuckerberg | $169 | United States | |
| 05 | Bill Gates | $151 | Oracle | United States |
| 06 | Larry Page | $143 | United States | |
| 07 | Larry Ellison | $142 | Berkshire Hathaway | United States |
| 08 | Steve Ballmer | $137 | United States | |
| 09 | Sergey Brin | $135 | Microsoft | United States |
| 10 | Warren Buffett | $130 | Microsoft | United States |
Figures sourced from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Disappointing US jobs data precipitated the market downturn, showing only 114,000 jobs added last month, which fell far below economists’ expectations. This led to significant declines in major US indices, with the Nasdaq Composite entering correction territory. The effects impacted global markets, with European and Asian markets also experiencing notable declines. Additionally, oil prices hit seven-month lows, and even gold prices retreated.
ADBC Research highlighted that the soft labor market data for July fueled risk-off sentiment, causing global equity markets to fall and bond markets to rally. “The July NFP print was soft on all fronts, though the impact of Hurricane Beryl adds uncertainty. We will need to closely watch upcoming labor and wider data for downside risks, particularly after Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the dual mandate and expressed concerns over downside risks to the labor market during last week’s FOMC meeting.An extended run of soft labor and activity prints could trigger larger rate cuts by the Fed. We already see a risk of 75 bps of cuts in 2H2024 following the July labor print, from 50 bps earlier,” stated ADBC Research.
The research further noted that dovish signals from Powell during the FOMC meeting place significant importance on the upcoming July Consumer Price Index (CPI) data to provide further evidence of disinflation progress.
