(Bloomberg) -- Here's another perspective on how much the trade standoff is sinking the market: The dollar value S&P 500 stocks lost in a single day as the sell-off accelerated was more than the U.S. imports from China in an entire year.
The U.S. buys everything from from electronic equipment to machinery to furniture and footwear from Beijing, with imports totaling $539 billion in 2018. The S&P 500's 2.4% slide on Monday wiped out $600 billion of market value.
Tops U.S. Current Account Deficit
The rush to get out of U.S. stocks entered its second week on Monday as anxiety grew that a full-fledged trade war with China will erode profits and crimp corporate margins. The S&P 500 capped its second-worst session of the year. The benchmark gauge is down 4.5% since May 3 after President Donald Trump unexpectedly ratcheted up a trade conflict that was largely thought to be nearing a resolution.
In another trade-related coincidence, Monday's $600 billion S&P 500 market-cap wipeout exceeds the current U.S. account deficit, a measure of the difference in the value of goods and services it imports versus exports. That reached $488.5 billion, or 2.4% of gross domestic product in 2018, up from $449.1 billion a year earlier.
Looking at it from an index level, the S&P 500's rout wiped out more than the combined value of its smallest 77 members. Together, they're worth $595 billion. It's also about the size of Facebook Inc, America's fifth-largest company at $518 billion in market cap, and Lowe's Cos, the third-largest member of the S&P 500 Retailing Industry Index, combined.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elena Popina in New York at epopina@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brad Olesen at bolesen3@bloomberg.net, Richard Richtmyer, Joanna Ossinger
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