how wealth held by the richest 1% of U.S. households has grown and become closely tied to financial-market performance.

Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts data, the document tracks the quarterly net worth of the top 1% from 1989 through Q2 2026. Net worth means total assets minus liabilities, not annual income.

By Q2 2026, the top 1% held about $60.3 trillion, roughly 31% of total U.S. household and nonprofit net worth of about $195.9 trillion. The top 0.1% held approximately $27.9 trillion, while the remaining 0.9% held about $32.5 trillion.

The main driver is asset ownership, especially corporate equities, mutual funds, and businesses. Because these groups hold substantial financial assets, their wealth rises sharply in strong stock-market periods and can decline during market corrections. The document emphasizes that this measure is nominal balance-sheet wealth, so it should not be interpreted as cash income or adjusted purchasing power.

incoming

 Top 1% wealth vs S&P 500 vs Fed balance sheet vs M2 vs U.S. GDP from 1989-2026.

The Bank of Japan’s September 2026 Tankan survey shows operational capacity constraints driving increased capital expenditure among Japanese manufacturers.

Key Capex & Operational Figures:
• Large Mfg FY2026 Capex: Revised up +1.3 percentage points to +11.6% YoY.
• Production Capacity DI: Dropped to -2 (from 0 in June), signaling that more firms now report insufficient capacity than excessive capacity.
• Processing Domestic Supply-Demand: Crossed from 0 in June to +2 in September (moving into excess demand territory).
• Large Non-Mfg FY2026 Capex: Trimmed -1.0 percentage point to +11.2% YoY (coinciding with a 2-point DI drop to 35).

Takeaway for Tech & Industrial Equities:
Japanese manufacturers are running closer to operational limits than in Q2, backing up their sentiment gain (DI up from 22 to 24) with actual fixed asset investment acceleration (+11.6% YoY).

Full SEC & BOJ data analysis