Amazon founder Jeff Bezos loses $20 billion in a day amid poor quarterly results

New Delhi: On Friday, Jeff Bezos lost roughly $20.5 billion when Amazon Inc's stock fell 14% following the company's quarterly report. According to Bloomberg, Amazon posted a quarterly deficit and the lowest sales increase in more than 20 years. The e-commerce behemoth lost $3.8 billion in the March quarter, compared to a profit of $8.1 billion in the previous year's equivalent quarter. Bezos' net worth has dropped to $148.4 billion from a record of more than $210 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

With assets down roughly $44 billion since January 1, Bezos, the world's second-richest man, is now the third-largest wealth loser this year.

Amazon's poor quarterly results released on Friday added fuel to what has been one of the worst months in recent memory for technology companies. During the recent stock market meltdown, the world's 500 wealthiest people lost approximately $54 billion on Friday.

The S&P 500 Index plummeted 3.6 percent on Friday, the most in a single day since June 2020. The Index dropped the most in a single month since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted in technology, fell 4.5 percent on Friday. In 2022, the index dropped over 13%, the largest drop since the financial crisis of 2008. The world's most valuable company, Apple Inc, fell 3.66 percent as a dismal outlook overshadowed record quarterly profit and sales.

According to Reuters, the unpredictable stock market will be put to the test next week as the US Federal Reserve prepares to boost interest rates and tighten monetary policy to combat rising inflation. As the market prepares to enter an usually leaner six-month period of stocks, concerns about monetary policy have been exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia crisis and China's recent lockup.