The top 1% of U.S. households took a $2.3 trillion fourth quarter 2018 hit from the plunge in corporate equities and mutual fund shares, according to the Federal Reserve, Bloomberg reports.
Newly released data provides quarterly distributions of U.S. household wealth, dating back to 1989, by category: the top 1%, top 40%, top 90% and the bottom 50%. A wide variety of investment account types are included in the data.
While the top 1% experienced a drop in wealth from the decline of equity holdings, some of that hit was counterbalanced by gains in municipal securities and other debt instruments as well as increased deposits in checking accounts, real estate gains and other holdings.
The overall drop in wealth for the top 1% was $1.9 trillion—roughly equivalent to the GDP of Italy. Read the full report.
