Axios

Japanese stocks saw their worst day today since 1987 as Japan's currency soared to a seven-month high against the U.S. dollar — triggering a selloff in global stocks.

Why it matters: There's an unwinding of the popular "yen carry trade" happening "at lightning speed" that will continue to cause volatility until it's over, Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, tells Axios.

Customers of major retail trading platforms including Schwab, E-Trade, Vanguard and Fidelity reported issues using apps amid the volatile day.

What they're saying: Fidelity acknowledged on social media that some customers had experienced login issues earlier today, but said the issue had been resolved.

• Schwab and Vanguard issued a similar statements.

By the numbers: Fidelity's reported outages peaked at over 3,700 around 10am ET, Vanguard's at around 2,880, and more than 15,000 were tracked at Schwab around the same time, according to the website Downdetector.

💭 Our thought bubble: While the companies did not respond to specific questions about the cause of the reported issues, it's likely that with increased trading activity and interest, more people were inclined to take to social media and aggregated sites like Downdetector to flag their problems.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose flights between Hawaii and New Zealand that he took on Republican megadonor Harlan Crow's private jet, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said Monday.

Why it matters: Thomas came under fire last year after several investigations revealed the close ties between him and Crow — including that he'd failed to report luxury trips taken on Crow's dime — that spurred greater scrutiny of Supreme Court justices' financial practices.

Crypto's massive sell-off alongside global markets in recent days will test industry narratives that the world's largest digital asset is a risk-on investment, but also, a safe haven.

The big picture: Bitcoin's roughly 30% decline over the last seven days — coinciding with smaller, yet significant, drops in major stock indexes — doesn't help prove the latter.

• But characterizing bitcoin as a risk-on asset, which tends to do better when interest rates are low (and poorer when rates are high), oversimplifies the factors driving the world's oldest cryptocurrency, some in the industry argue.

Crypto Twitter was attributing the sell-off to crypto trading firm Jump when some folks noticed that wallets previously identified as belonging to that shop were in selling mode.

Zoom in: Wintermute trader Jake Ostrovskis said not to drink the Kool-Aid.

• He attributed the crypto rout to macro expectations, and in the wee hours this morning, made a call: "The US ISM Services PMI will be in focus today, with expectations of a 51.4 reading. Any sharp decline into contraction territory (below 50) would be significant, whilst a stronger-than-expected print may result in a relief rally."

State of play: The data aligned with estimates, and now, bitcoin prices appear to be bouncing.

• Our thought bubble: ☝️ BTW, Friday's miss was 114,000 vs 175,000.

There is no reason that a 0.2 percentage point rise in the U.S. unemployment rate should trigger a 12% collapse in the price of Japanese stocks. Yet that's what happened Sunday overnight.

The big picture: The U.S. selloff on Friday was sensible, given signs of an economic weakening evident in July jobs data. The plunge in global markets that started Sunday night, however, looks to be driven by international financial linkages and crowded trades unwinding.

For the first time since 2018, the U.S. has more companies than China on Fortune's Global 500 list, which ranks the world's largest corporations by revenue.

Why it matters: China's economy, the world's second-largest, has faltered lately, dragged down by a yearslong housing crisis and lackluster consumer demand.

Fears of a U.S. recession tanked global markets Monday, with Japanese stocks suffering their biggest single-day rout since 1987's Black Monday.

Why it matters: Friday's dismal U.S. jobs report capped a series of worrying economic signs over the past few weeks, with clear cracks in what had been a robust post-pandemic expansion.

Conservatives are targeting the hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending that's led to the highest insured rate in U.S. history — and no program is more in the crosshairs than Medicaid.

Why it matters: The Affordable Care Act expansion of Medicaid for low-income adults helped drive enrollment to nearly 75 million people as of April.