US President Donald Trump caused quite some mayhem at the stock markets on Wednesday, May 17, after reports said that he may implement tax reforms. Additionally, the row over the firing of FBI director James Comey has also cast a shadow of concern over the stock markets in the US. The dollar too hit a low for the first time since November 2016.
In tune with the stock markets shedding gains on Wednesday, some of the world's richest people reportedly lost big bucks, thanks to the mayhem. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the fifth richest person, faced a loss of about $2 billion
American business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist Bill Gates, who is currently the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US$87.4 billion, lost about $1 billion as shares of Microsoft fell 208 percent.
Another business magnate who lost big on the stock market yesterday was Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos. He is said to have lost $1.7 billion dollars after Amazon shares slid 2.2 percent.
Spanish business magnate, Amancio Ortega, best known for his fashion brand Zara, lost $355 million. It has been reported that the world's richest people jointly faced losses of about $35 billion after stocks tumbled on May 17.
Meanwhile, in India, the Bombay Stock Exchange and NSE Nifty were also trading in the red early on Thursday morning. While BSE Sensex tanked 200 points Nifty too was below 9500 points.
"Indian markets are likely to open negative tracking the SGX Nifty and Global markets. The US markets closed sharply lower during the day. The Dow Jones tumbled 373 points, one of the biggest falls in nearly one year, while the tech heavy NASDAQ fell by 158 points. The sell off on Wall Street came as ongoing political turmoil in Washington further offset optimism about President Donald Trump's ability to implement tax reforms and deregulation," Angel Broking said in a note on Thursday morning.
Asian markets, in general, were affected by the negative sentiments at the US stock exchange. The Tokyo stock market index Nikkei shed 1.2 percent gains falling to a 1.5 week low on concerns of Trump's future and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.5 percent. While the Hong Kong stock index Hang Seng shed 0.62 percent, Singapore stocks did not see much of an impact.
China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent to 3090.14 and Shenzhen Composite Index fell 0.63 percent to 1,855.99.
