"Our clients have set multiple new single-day records for trading in recent weeks, reaching a high of 2.7 million trades on March 9," Chief Financial Officer Peter Crawford said https://www.aboutschwab.com/cfo-commentary on Friday.

The brokerage giant's clients averaged 1.3 million trades per day in February, up 53% from a year earlier, with a significant increase in client cash allocations during the first eight business days of March, consistent with the company's experience during other periods of heightened uncertainty.

"Stronger levels of trading-related and net interest revenue generated by these client actions should help soften the impact of lower rates and equity market valuations, enabling us to deliver linked-period top-line growth for the first quarter of 2020," Crawford said.

Global markets have been hit with high-volatility levels as alarm over the coronavirus intensified, with governments around the world scrambling to slow the spread of a disease that has infected more than 127,000 people worldwide.

(Reporting by C Nivedita in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)