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. It took four quarters for the stock market to bake that wealth back into equities.
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.
MarketWatch took a look at the Federal Reserve’s financial accounts of the United States report for answers — and did some back-of-the-envelope math.
Created with Highstock 2.0.1TimeDow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market IndexSep 14Nov 14Jan 15Mar 15May 15Jul 15
19,00020,00021,00022,00023,000
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.
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. It took four quarters for the stock market to bake that wealth back into equities.