$5.7 trillion wiped off share prices in 2016

We know it's been a bad start to 2016 for equities. Already the FTSE 100 is down over 400 points, or about 6.6%, and it keeps trying to go lower. But research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) has put a figure on losses so far this year. And it's truly gobsmacking.

According to analysts at the US broker, global equity market capitalisation plunged by a colossal $5.7 trillion (£4 trillion) in first nine trading days of 2016.

That's equivalent to the GDP of France and the UK combined! Or, if you prefer, it's £62,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK, or $770 for every person on earth.

It's also on a par with the $5.67 trillion wiped out in the global market rout in October 2008.

Of course, there's still plenty left. Research by Visual Capitalist estimates the market capitalisation of all the world's stockmarkets is about $70 trillion. The US accounts for over half that, with the European Union 8%, Japan 7%, China 2% and the rest of the world 31%.

But that's still dwarfed by the global derivatives market, valued conservatively at $630 trillion.

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In terms of weekly asset class flows, BoAML reports $11.9 billion of outflows from equities, the largest outflow in 18 weeks. There was major selling of US stocks, and emerging markets have suffered outflows for 11 straight weeks now. Now, Europe has experienced its first outflows in 15 weeks, although just $0.1 billion.

It was "carnage in tech" with sector outflows of $1.1 billion, and for financials at $0.7 billion, the largest in 20 weeks for both.

That cash had to go somewhere, and, while bonds enjoyed inflows for a second week at $2.3 billion, a staggering $24 billion found its way into money markets. That takes the total to $149 billion since the fourth quarter of 2015.

Interestingly, there was a $1.5 billion inflow for commodities, the most in a year.

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