Troubling news out of Japan tanked stock markets this morning, and financial companies are suffering. Through 1:11 p.m. ET, shares of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) are down 2%, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) dropped 2.4%, and insurance giant Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) fell 3.1%.

But hold on a second. The broader S&P 500 is down 2.6% today, less than Chubb but more than the banks. Could this be good news for America's big banks?

Let's start with the basics. The yen carry trade sparked today's sell-off. Currency traders -- including those who work for big banks -- have been borrowing cheap money in yen, then using these loans to buy U.S.-denominated debt (to capture higher interest rates) and U.S. tech stocks (which have benefited from the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution).

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Source Fool.com