Stock Market Turmoil Has Wiped Billions Away From The Richest People In The World

The price of oil bottomed out Monday due to tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia that popped up over the weekend. On Friday Russia rejected additional production cuts proposed by the 14-member OPEC cartel. This prompted Saudi Arabia to retaliate and announce massive discounts to its official selling prices for April as well as an increase in production to above the 10 million barrel per day mark. This drove fears of an oversupply. The U.S.’s West Texas Intermediate dropped 24.59%. It is the company’s worst day since 1991 and second worst day on record. Tesla founder Elon Musk lost $4 billion overnight after tweeting that “coronavirus panic is dumb.” His losses total more than $12 billion over the last month. That said, Musk is the only person in the top 30 richest who has positive growth in 2020 for his net worth. Tesla shares are up 53% year to date and more than 126% over the past 12 months. Warren Buffett has seen his net worth fall $4 billion since Friday and $12 billion over the past month. He has a net worth of $82 billion, making him the fourth richest person in the world, just behind LVMH’s Bernard Arnault. Arnault is the biggest loser so far in this coronavirus driven stock market panic. Shares of his luxury goods conglomerate are down 24% since January. Arnault’s fortune has fallen by $30 billion over the past month. Analysts believe that it will get worse before it gets better, so for your own sanity, stop watching the value of your stocks and/or 401K!