Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma lose $16bn in one day amid US North Korea war of words

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Technology founders Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma saw a combined $15.5bn (£11.5bn) wiped off the value of their fortunes on Monday as investors sold equities and looked for safe havens.

The sell-off in riskier assets came after North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said that the nation could shoot down US warplanes because President Donald Trump’s recent commentshttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-north-korea-un-speech-destroy-kim-jong-un-us-threat-nuclear-a7955631.html amounted to a declaration of war.

Facebook founder Mr Zuckerberg’s net worth fell $3.2bn on Monday, the largest on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Alibaba boss Mr Ma suffered a $1.3bn decline and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ wealth declined by $1.2bn.

The yen and gold - both seen as safe investments in uncertain times - consolidated gains on Monday after the latest threats from North Korea. Asian equities fell marginally.

On Monday, the White House dismissed as “absurd” the suggestion by Mr Ri that the US had declared war on Pyongyang. Mr Ri said that Pyongyang reserved the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down US bombers even if they are not in its air space.

Mr Ri said a Twitter message by Mr Trump in which the president warned that the minister and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “won't be around much longer” if they acted on their threats was a call for war.

Leading share indices have fallen back from recent record highs as the two countries have continued to trade threats.

Bucking the trend, the Stoxx Europe 600 index, which includes shares from across the continent, inched higher as investors digested German Chancellor Angela Merkel's general election victory on Sunday.

Markets will now look to US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Tuesday as policymakers continue to disagree about when to raise interest rates.