Schwab, Vanguard, Other eBrokers Face Outages As Dow Soars

Amid surging stocks, some online brokers like TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab and Vanguard are missing out due to the websites going down, CNBC reported.

The highs came from the revelation early Monday (Nov. 9) about a possible COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer, which that company said had a 90 percent chance of working.

But eBrokers found their websites experiencing technical difficulties, and CNBC reported that it was unclear how many brokers couldn’t access the sites to make trades.

After the announcement about the vaccine, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared over 800 points higher, or 2.95 percent, hitting what CNBC called an all-time high. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained over 1.2 percent.

TD Ameritrade tweeted that there were “login issues” with the apps, while Fidelity tweeted that the high volumes of activity had caused outages, and Vanguard also acknowledged that it had been experiencing difficulties, according to CNBC. Robinhood, despite listing its status as operational on Monday, still had users reporting issues.

This isn’t the first time Robinhood, Fidelity or Schwab have been excluded from big trading days this year. In March, when there was record volatility, those sites had outages that lasted as much as a whole day, prompting outraged tweets from users, CNBC reported.

Both the vaccine announcement and that of Joe Biden’s election win making him president-elect of the United States have sent stocks in positive directions this week. Biden’s win comes with hopes from leaders of more stimulus funds, which could further steer the economy back to normal, PYMNTS reported.

The appeal of the normalcy could keep stocks high, experts said. Jan Hatzius, chief economist for Goldman Sachs, said a comprehensive stimulus, including more Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding, more unemployment boosts for those out of work and more funding for pandemic-related public health efforts, would be preferable, along with funding for checks for individuals — although Hatzius noted the last item is “less clear than the other components.”