“The best day in history”: billionaires won back their fortunes in a day
10 April 2025 09:29
The world’s richest individuals added a staggering $304 billion to their combined wealth on Wednesday alone, the largest single-day gain in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Such a sharp increase occurred amid a rapid rise in stock markets after US President Donald Trump promised to suspend the introduction of duties for some trading partners, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing Bloomberg.
Thus, the S&P 500 index showed the most significant growth since 2008 after Trump’s statement, which fully compensated for the significant losses of the previous days and increased the wealth of the world’s 500 richest people by an average of 3.5%. The Nasdaq Composite Index also recovered, posting its highest gain in more than 24 years.
This record-breaking day comes on the heels of last week’s market plunge caused by Trump’s earlier announcement of new tariffs. The scale of the proposed tariffs exceeded most analysts’ expectations and led to the largest losses in equities since the Bloomberg index was introduced in 2013. The gains continued during Asian trading hours on Thursday, with regional stock markets posting their biggest jump in more than two years.
Wednesday broke the previous record of $233 billion set in March 2022, when US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell raised interest rates for the first time in several years, but at the same time reassured investors of the economy’s resilience.
The biggest individual beneficiary on Wednesday was Tesla Inc. Elon Musk, who gained $36 billion thanks to a 23% jump in the electric car maker’s shares. He is followed by the founder of Meta Platforms Inc. Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune grew by almost $26 billion. Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang saw his fortune rise by $15.5 billion as the chipmaker’s shares recovered 19%, offsetting a 13% drop during the week before Tuesday’s close.
Ernest Garcia, CEO of Carvana Co. was the day’s top gainer, with a 25% increase in his net worth as the used car retailer’s stock jumped $1.4 billion.
During Thursday’s trading, Asian billionaires also joined the recovery. Masayoshi Son, the chairman of SoftBank Group Corp. added $1.7 billion to his fortune, which now stands at $11.7 billion. The wealth of China’s second richest woman, Zhou Qunfei, increased by 14.3% to $9.5 billion.
Other major beneficiaries include Uniqlo owner Tadashi Yanai, who gained $3.5 billion, bringing his net worth to $47 billion. Zhang Qunyuan, chairman of the shoe manufacturer Huali Industrial Group Co. saw his fortune grow by 12.9% to $8 billion.
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Trump’s tariffs
The fever in the markets was caused by the fact that on April 2, US President Donald Trump announced the introduction of tariffs against almost all countries of the world (except Russia, Belarus, Cuba, and the DPRK). These tariffs, according to the White House, will be half of the tariff that a particular country has imposed on US goods. For example, China allegedly imposes a 67% tariff on US goods, so the US imposed a 34% tariff on Chinese goods.
For those countries that do not impose special duties on American goods, a basic tariff of 10% was introduced.
Trump called the introduction of such trade barriers “Liberation Day” and said that this day would go down in US history as the beginning of the restoration of the American economy and greatness.
Interestingly, the comparative table released by the White House provides data on tariffs against 185 countries, but Russia is not on the list. Instead, it includes the Herd and McDonald Islands, which were subject to a basic 10% tariff. The only thing is that there is not a single person on these islands.
on April 9, Trump announced that he was postponing the introduction of tariffs for 90 days for those countries that did not impose retaliatory tariffs but contacted Trump to negotiate. According to him, there were more than 75 such countries. It was this decision that caused the markets to jump.
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