Wall Street slumped on Monday and futures pointed to more losses to come after a fall in China’s yuan currency and US President Donald Trump’s vow to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods sparked an escalation of the US-China trade war.
THE WORLD’S 500 WEALTHIEST PEOPLE LOST A COLLECTIVE $117 BILLION
S&P 500 futures EScv1 late in the day dropped over 1% after the United States officially designated China a currency manipulator, sharply escalating the ongoing dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
During Monday’s session, the benchmark S&P 500 slid about 3% to mark its biggest one-day percentage decline since Dec. 4. That slump amounted to a $766 billion loss on paper for the index, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P 500 has fallen for six consecutive sessions and is now about 6% below its record closing high on July 26.
The world’s 500 wealthiest people lost a collective $117 billion on Monday. Of those 500, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, lost $3.4 billion as Amazon’s stock plunged 3.2%.
Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg lost $2.8 billion, while Bill Gates lost $2 billion in net worth.
Several investors viewed the move in the Chinese currency as a direct response to Trump’s announcement of 10% tariffs on an additional $300 billion of imports from China.