"Black Monday" triggers panic! Retail investors rush to sell, leading to crashes on US stock brokerage websites

US stocks welcomed "Black Monday", with the three major indices opening sharply lower, with the Nasdaq falling by more than 6%. The total market value of the "Big Seven" evaporated by $1.3 trillion, causing panic among US retail traders on Monday morning. Website monitoring agency DownDetector reported that as a large number of users tried to log in to their accounts and sell stocks, several brokerage websites began to crash before the market opened.

According to DownDetector, users of Charles Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard, and E-Trade all reported website malfunctions, with reports of malfunctions surging at the opening of the US stock market on Monday. Analysis suggests that retail investors may have received push notifications on their smartphones earlier about the turmoil in Asian and European markets, triggering panic.

Over 15,300 users of Charles Schwab reported website downtime issues, according to DownDetector. The company did not immediately respond to media requests for comment, but its account on social media platform X posted that some customers "may be experiencing difficulty logging into the Schwab platform."

"We apologize for the inconvenience, and our team is working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible," the company said, without confirming the scale or scope of the downtime. According to its second-quarter report, as of June, Charles Schwab had 35.6 million active brokerage accounts.

Reports of downtime for Fidelity exceeded 3,000, with the company confirming the issue in a post on X. The company responded to the media around 10:50 am on Monday, stating that the issue had been resolved. "We are aware that some customers experienced intermittent issues earlier today," a Fidelity spokesperson said in an email statement. "The issue has now been resolved."

Meanwhile, Vanguard and TD Ameritrade also had thousands of reports of downtime.

In addition, online brokerage Robinhood also temporarily suspended trading, but has since resumed overnight trading. The company allows users to trade specific stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) around the clock.

During Monday's trading session, Charles Schwab fell by 1.37%, Fidelity by 1.77%, and Robinhood plummeted by 9.01%.

Analysts believe that periods of extreme market volatility can sometimes trigger such technical issues, raising questions about brokerage firms' ability to handle high trading volumes. Many netizens also complained on X about being unable to trade:

Due to weak economic data, lackluster financial reports from tech giants in the second quarter, and renewed concerns about economic recession due to geopolitical tensions, major Wall Street indices plummeted on Monday, weakening hopes for a soft landing.

On Monday, the three major U.S. indices opened lower, with the Nasdaq plunging 6.35% at the beginning of the session, the S&P 500 falling 4.09%, the Dow dropping 2.69%, and the Russell 2000 Index declining 5.84%. Among the major sector ETFs in the U.S. stock market, AI and robotics, technology, electric vehicles, banking, and oil and gas sectors led the declines. The "Big Seven" tech stocks fell by 9%, marking the largest drop since 2015. Specifically, Tesla fell by over 10%, Nvidia by over 12%, with stock prices falling below $100. However, after the major U.S. stock indices plummeted, the declines narrowed, and there was an accelerated rebound after the release of the U.S. ISM non-manufacturing data for July. The stock prices of the "Big Seven" tech companies partially recovered after the sharp decline, but the downward trend resumed shortly after