Coronavirus: $Billions Wipeout, Some Gain
From Fortune: It wasn’t a good day for the world’s 500 richest people, who lost a combined $139 billion in Monday’s market rout. Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury-goods maker LVMH, and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos led the declines, each losing more than $4.8 billion. Amancio Ortega, chief executive of fashion retailer Zara’s parent company Inditex, tumbled $4 billion, and the fortunes of everyone else in the top 10 slid by at least $2.3 billion, Bloomberg reports.
It’s the biggest wealth drop for the group since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index began tracking that figure in October 2016. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each dropped more than 3% on the day, the most in more than two years, as authorities struggled to contain the virus.
And now for the winners, arising from the same coronavirus. Every cloud has a silver lining. And Monday’s market carnage was no exception. A number of small U.S. health and biotech stocks did well, led by NanoViricides Inc (up 38%), which is working on a treatment for coronavirus. Another winner was Clorox Co. Shares in the maker of bleach and household cleaners, in strong demand because of the outbreak, rose 1.6%. The cancellation of conferences and travel restrictions are driving demand for video conferencing, sending Zoom Video Communications’ shares up 3.2%. Shares in home exercise bike company Peloton rose 4% as investors bet people might not be able to get to the gym.