Don't mock Elon Musk too much for losing $45 billion on Tesla stock since the S&P 500 started tanking this month. You're likely holding the bag on part of billions in losses, too.
The nine S&P 500 stocks that dropped the most market value from the S&P 500's Jan. 3 closing high, including Apple, Tesla and Amazon.com, lost more than $1.7 trillion since then, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith.
Who's losing that enormous sum? Yes, Telsa founder Musk along with other tycoons like Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos lost more than $100 billion of that. But it's also leaving a giant hole in your portfolio, too.
Why? Mutual fund and ETF providers are the No. 1 owners of more than half of the nine biggest market value losers in the S&P 500 from the high. Vanguard, the world's largest asset manager, is holding the largest losses in four of them alone.
"Wall Street has gone from debating how aggressive one should rotate out of tech into cyclicals, to sell it all," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.
S&P 500 Giants Feeling The Pain
Betting on giant S&P 500 companies — especially in the tech and communications services sectors — was like money in the bank for years. But that's reversing fast and costing big investors big money in the process.
The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF, which owns only the giants in the S&P 500, is down 13.3% from the day the S&P 500 peaked. That throws the ETF into a correction. It's also considerably worse than the 8.3% drop in that time by the S&P 500. Big caps are dropping even more than technology stocks. The Technology Select Sector SPDR is down 12.1% from Jan. 3.
Given how much the megacap companies' value has ballooned, the amounts lost are giant, too. The value of Apple alone is down $333.3 billion just since Jan. 3. That's more than 96% of the companies in the S&P 500 are worth. CEO Tim Cook alone took a $64 million financial haircut from that.
But Vanguard is the single largest owner of Apple, with 7.8%. Its position in Apple is off nearly $25 billion. Some of that is likely in your 401(k). Should you buy Apple stock now?
Don't Feel Too Bad For Bezos, Musk
Bezos and Musk are unusual in that they're still big owners of the companies they founded. But the losses on giant companies extend beyond them.
Amazon's more than 16% drop from the January high knocked $27.7 billion off Bezos' 9.9% stake in the company. The company's value is down $281.6 billion from the high. He's also the largest owner. It's a similar story at Tesla. With a 17.7% stake in the company, Musk's value is down $45.5 billion. But all together, investors lost $257.5 billion on the stock's 21% drop from the high.
And yet, mutual fund and ETF providers are holding the bag on some of these giant losses. Vanguard is the No. 1 holder of Microsoft. And that stock's $290.7 billion drop from Jan. 3 is the second-largest in the S&P 500. That means Vanguard, alone, is holding the bag for a $23.8 billion loss. What about Bill Gates? He's not even a top 10 largest holder anymore. Should you buy Microsoft stock now?
And it's not just Vanguard. Capital Group, home of American Funds, is the top owner of one of the most spectacular big-cap implosions in the S&P 500: Netflix. Shares of the video streamer lost more than a third of their value from Jan. 3. That wiped out $88.5 billion in market value. But of that, founder Reed Hastings only ate a billion dollars loss. He only owns 1.2% of the company.
But Capital Group holds more Netflix stock than anyone: 14%. That's not feeling so good now, erasing a massive $12.5 billion in market value in less than a month.
Biggest Losers In S&P 500
Largest losses since Jan. 3, 2022 high
| Company | Symbol | Company market value total lost ($ billions)* | Listed top owner | Top owner % of company owned | Top owner loss ($ billions)* | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | -$333.3 | Vanguard | 7.75% | -$24.8 | Information Technology | |
| Microsoft | -290.7 | Vanguard | 8.18 | -23.8 | Information Technology | |
| Amazon.com | -281.6 | Jeff Bezos | 9.85 | -27.7 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Tesla | -257.5 | Elon Musk | 17.70 | -45.5 | Consumer Discretionary | |
| Alphabet | -194.9 | Vanguard | 6.65 | -12.9 | Communication Services | |
| Nvidia | -168.8 | Vanguard | 7.79 | -13.1 | Information Technology | |
| Meta Platforms | -98.4 | Mark Zuckerberg | 12.50 | -12.3 | Communication Services | |
| Netflix | -88.5 | Capital Research and Management | 14.10 | -12.5 | Communication Services |
Sources: IBD, S&P Global Market Intelligence, * - from Jan. 3, 2022 S&P 500 closing high to Jan. 21, 2022
Follow Matt Krantz on Twitter @mattkrantz
