The US stock markets tremble – and prepare the richest people in the world blatant losses!
The tech exchange Nasdaq experienced the biggest minus since the beginning of the corona pandemic last week. Since its record high on November 19, 2021, the index has fallen 14.3 percent and is now more than 10 percent below its last peak for four straight weeks.
The reference index S&P 500 also fell three weeks in a row at the beginning of the year. It fell 5.7 percent this week, the sharpest weekly decline since March 2020.
This led to a stock sell-off in the tech sector – and hit top US tech billionaires hard. Tesla boss Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google co-founder Larry Page, Microsoft inventor Bill Gates and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg collectively lost $67 billion last week.
► Musk was hit the hardest: According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth fell by $ 25.1 billion (22.1 billion euros) this week – more than nine percent.
► Amazon founder Bezos lost $19.9 billion this week, his wealth down more than $24 billion year-to-date.
► Zuckerberg was down $10.4 billion this week.
Netflix is also sailing down
A surprisingly weak forecast for user numbers by Netflix at the end of the week caused great disappointment. This sent Netflix shares to their lowest level since April 2020. With a slump of almost 22 percent, the papers were by far the biggest weekly losers in the Nasdaq 100.
For the current quarter, the company expects only 2.5 million new customers. The forecast for the new subscribers is not even half as high as expected, said Mark Mahaney from the analysis company Evercore ISI.
For comparison: In the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of subscribers worldwide had increased by 8.3 million. In addition, the strong dollar is weighing on the company’s revenues in markets outside the United States.
The Netflix shock is deep and grist for those who think tech stocks are overvalued. Because of inflation worries, the industry papers have been sold for weeks.
“Rising interest rates and then even lower growth expectations,” commented market observer Jochen Stanzl from broker CMC Markets. In his view, Netflix “could be symptomatic of what lies ahead for the stock market in the coming weeks and months.”