Three Of The World's Richest Men Lose Billions Thanks To Donald Trump

For most of us, it's bad enough when we lose a tenner, but imagine losing $4.5bn (£3.46bn).

As Donald Trump continues his war of words with North Korea, and the threat of conflict looms, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have seen billions wiped off their share prices.

The three saw plummeting indexes as investors sold off equities and headed for perceived safe havens, such as gold.

Amazon owner, Bezos, who recently became the richest man in the world, saw the biggest losses as $2bn (£1.5bn) was wiped.

Credit: BBC

Facebook's creator, Mark Zuckerberg, was the second biggest loser, with a reduction in his worth of $1.6bn (£1.23bn).

Microsoft founder Bill Gates lost less than one billion but still took a $850m (£653m) hit on his share values.

Credit: PA

In total, about $30bn (£23bn) was lost from American technology companies, with further losses expected on Friday.

President Trump has hit the headlines this week, on numerous occasions, for his verbal outburst at North Korea.

The secretive state has made several statements in recent times claiming that its missiles can now hit the American coast - causing Trump to hit back.

These war of words have caused the global stock market to sit up and take note. The European-wide STOXX 600 fell by 0.7 percent on Friday, taking weekly losses to 2.7 percent in total - the highest since November 2016.

Credit: PA

Trump stated earlier that 'military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded', and earlier on Friday emphasised his stance.

He told the press: "We are looking at that [North Korea] very carefully, I hope they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said, and what I said is what I mean.

"Hopefully they'll understand what I said, and the meaning of those words.

"We want to talk about a country that has misbehaved for many, many years, decades actually, through numerous administrations.

"They didn't want to take on the issue, I'm taking it on. We'll either be very successful very quickly, or we'll be very successful in a different way."

President Trump had previously vowed to fight North Korea with 'fire and fury' after North Korea tested its 17th missile of the year earlier in the month.