The loss for the billionaires amounted to an average decline of $175 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest person and the world's 59th-richest, was one of only 12 billionaires among the 400 to increase their fortunes on the day, rising $180 million to $15.3 billion. Dangote Cement rose 2.35 percent.

The collective decline for the billionaires amounted to a fall of more than 1.5 percent.  The combined loss is more than the market capitalization of Ford Motor Co. or Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. The S&P fell 2.1 percent on the day and the NASDAQ dropped 2.4 percent. In Europe, the Euro Stoxx index lost 4.2 percent. China's Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite index lost more than 6 percent of its value.