The S&P 500‘s rapid 10% decline from a record high into correction territory has wiped out trillions of dollars in market value.
The market value of the S&P 500 at its Feb. 19 peak was $52.06 trillion, according to FactSet. Thursday’s decline put the index’s market value down to $46.78 trillion.
That makes for a total loss of about $5.28 trillion in about three weeks.
The decline has come in the shadow of President Donald Trump’s burgeoning trade war with several of the United States’ major trading partners, with headlines about tariffs at times seeming to drive market moves. There have also been signs of slowing economic growth, with weak consumer sentiment surveys and tepid outlooks from retailers like Walmart.
“Our interactions with clients indicate that the mood music is changing. While many see recession talk as premature, concerns about erratic policy from the new administration abound, with the ‘uncertainty tax’ hitting growth expectations,” Barclays strategist Emmanuel Cau said in a note to clients.
Another contributing factor to the decline appears to be the unwind of the growth trade related to artificial intelligence. Since Nov. 19, Nvidia is down 17% and the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) is down 19%.
The run up in those AI-related stocks before the correction had raised concern that the stock market was too richly valued, with several stocks at times having their own market caps above $3 trillion. Even now, the S&P 500 is trading at 24.1-times its trailing 12-month earnings, according to FactSet, which is well above its long-term average.