Small Investors Stung as Fidelity, Schwab Brokerages Report Outages During Market Meltdown
The sell-off was initiated by a lackluster jobs report on Friday which was followed by Asian markets clocking the worst drops in decades.
![AP/Richard Drew](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwp.nysun.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F08%2Fmarket.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Fidelity, Charles Schwab and several other retail stock market investing platforms are reporting outages for their users as investors try to navigate what could be one of the largest single-day market drops in years.
According to Bloomberg, more than 14,000 Schwab customers reported being unable to log in to their accounts just after the markets opened on Monday. The company apologized in a statement on X, writing that “Due to a technical issue, some clients may have difficulty logging in to Schwab platforms.”
“Please accept our apologies as our teams work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Hold times may be longer than usual,” the firm added.
The website Downdector reported more than 3,600 customer complaints about Fidelity, though the number of complaints subsided to just around 100 at 11 a.m. eastern time.
Monday trading was expected to see a massive sell-off of investments after a disappointing jobs report was released by the Department of Labor on Friday, just two days after the Federal Reserve declined to cut interest rates at their July meeting.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics posted just a 114,000 jobs gain in the month of July — far below the 179,000 that economists had predicted. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 percent, the highest since October 2021. Wage growth also came in below expectations at a rate of 0.2 percent during the month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by more than 600 points on Friday following the jobs report. Losses did not subside on Monday, as the market dropped by around 900 points between the opening bell and late morning.
Representatives of Schwab and Fidelity did not respond to requests for comment.