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## There appears to be an awful lot of back-slapping going on in the Investment Markets right now. Was it Donald Trump's speech to Congress? Snap Inc's IPO, the biggest for 3 years? The continued decline in unemployment? Easing money supply?

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The prospect of Interest Rate increases seems to hurt not one bit. When everyone is being so jubilant and congratulating themselves is the time when the likes of Warren Buffet start getting itchy feet.

**"Too good to be true because it never is true."**

## Here are some of the recent indicators which caught my eye.

The probability of a second hike by the July FOMC meeting increased as well but remains below 40%.

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The last time Unemployment claims were this low was when Polaroid was the camera company of the day.

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<center>Source: Halifax</center>

Last week US President Trump held an upbeat speech for Congress and it sent investors into frenzied buying, with global stocks rising sharply and US indices hitting new records. Investors remain patient and keep the faith, despite the lack of detail around the policy proposals. Investor sentiment remains extremely bullish.

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Banks globally have paid $321 billion in fines since 2008 for an abundance of regulatory failings from money laundering to market manipulation and terrorist financing, according to data from Boston Consulting Group.

That tally is set to increase in the coming years as European and Asian regulators catch up with their more aggressive U.S. peers, who have levied the majority of charges to date, BCG said in its seventh annual study of the industry published Thursday. Banks paid $42 billion in fines in 2016 alone, a 68 percent rise on the previous year.

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**Something which is related to steemit.com:**

## Snap Inc.
Late last Wednesday, Snap shares were issued to a select few investors at $17 per share (valuing Snap Inc. at around $24 billion, the largest US IPO since 2014). On Thursday the shares became available to everyone else to trade via the New York Stock Exchange. Immediately the shares jumped to $24, a 40% gain for the IPO investors, before eventually closing the day at $24.50.
The hot technology company got its first official Wall Street analyst rating… a sell.
Small research firm Pivotal Research Group slapped a sell rating on Snap shares and a $10 price target, well below their $17-a-share offering price and far below the $24 price they opened at for trading late morning Thursday. The company is the first to issue a rating on the hot technology IPO:
*Snap "is significantly overvalued given the likely scale of its long-term opportunity and the risks associated with executing against that opportunity," wrote Pivotal's Brian Wieser in the March 2 note. "Significant ongoing dilution from share-based compensation will likely represent an additional negative consideration for the stock."*

Bigger research shops associated with banks are barred from issuing coverage on IPOs for which they were underwriters for a period of time after the offering. This is so they cannot be seen as influencing the price of the stock for their friends across the Chinese wall in investment banking. But independent shops like Pivotal are free to do so.

The initial enthusiasm now appears to be fizzling out as shares of Snapchat's parent company fell almost 10% to $21.44 on Tuesday, after falling 12% on Monday to below its opening price of $24 per share. 

The stock is considered a massive risk for two reasons. Firstly, the price reflects 50% Year on Year growth for 10 years. Secondly, the Ordinary Shares carry no voting rights.

To put in perspective, the market values the company at almost 70% of Facebook’s value per user with an unsubstantiated comparable revenue structure/stream.

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