Households Just Saw $1.8 Trillion in Wealth Vanish as Stocks Fall

By Steve Goldstein. You may have seen headlines to describe the market carnage like a trillion dollar’s worth of wealth wiped away in a single day. But it’s worth noting just how much is held by Americans in the stock market in the first place . . .

As of March 31, households and nonprofits held $24.1 trillion in stocks. That’s both directly, and through mutual funds, pension funds and the like. That also includes the holdings of U.S.-based hedge funds, though you’d have to think that most hedge funds are held by households.

Using the Dow Jones Total Stock Market index DWCF, -3.94% through midmorning trade, that number had dropped to $22.32 trillion.

In other words, a cool $1.8 trillion has been lost between now and the first quarter — and overwhelmingly, those losses occurred in the last few days. This will probably be the worst quarter for stock-market destruction since the third quarter of 2011, when $2.8 trillion was wiped away. (Read more from “Households Just Saw $1.8 Trillion in Wealth Vanish as Stocks Fall” HERE)

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Biggest One-Day Drops for the Dow Jones Industrial Average

By AP. U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Monday, part of a global wave of selling triggered by worries of economic slowdown in China.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 1,000 points shortly after the open of trading, before regaining ground throughout the day. Despite rallying after the initial sell-off, the Dow ended the day 588.40 points, or 3.6 percent, lower.

The point decline was the eighth-largest ever, but on a percentage basis, it’s not close to the top 10 declines for the index, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. (Read more from this story HERE)

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