The overall market moved sharply higher after the conclusion of the Memorial Day weekend. I take this to mean that everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend very thoroughly and returned to work in a good mood. Of course the news that President Bush's tax plan would be passed by Congress and signed into law did not hurt things. I continue to maintain that the biggest influence on the market is politics. The market obviously responded very positive to what it views as a tax reduction package from Washington that it believes will stimulate the economy. It also demonstrates to me that the current President Bush understands economics and politics far better than his father did, and appears to have learned very smartly from his father's mistakes.

In terms of economic news it appears to be a rather quite week ahead. The important news will be the release of Initial Jobless claims on June 5th, and the biggest news of the week will be the release of unemployment numbers on Friday June 6th prior to the open of the market.

On Thursday June 5th, National Semiconductor 'NSM' is scheduled to release earnings. Their earnings could have some impact on the view of semiconductor companies and possibly Intel Corp. 'INTC'. Otherwise the overall calendar for the upcoming week looks quite.

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While one of my consulting projects had me tied up at the end of the week and I did not publish a Prime Stock letter for Thursday or Friday, last week was good to a couple of our recommendations. Intuit, Inc. 'INTU' recommended on may 28th, finished the week $0.95/share higher from its open price on the day it was recommenced. Also Lehman Bros. Holdings recommenced on Thursday May 22nd, reached our initial price target Friday May 30th.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday at 8,850.26 up 139.08 points on the day. I have been writing about converging trendlines on the Dow Jones Industrial Average 'INDU' that I believed would force either a move to the downside or upside since late April. While I did not think it would take as long as it did for us to see a clear breakout from these converging trendlines, they finally broke through them on April 27th with a move of 179.97 points to the upside on heavier than normal trading volume, closing at 8,781.35 on for the day.

The S&P 500 (SPX) closed Friday @ 963.59 up 13.95 points. The reversal to the downside that I thought was going to occur after the close of trading on the 19th of May did not materialize as I had expected. While there was a short period of downward movement or intermediate profit taking. The passage of President Bush's tax cut plan was clearly well received by the market. The plan is widely expected to be successful in stimulating the economy and the stock market. We could easily see the S&P 500 move towards its early 2000 levels of 1,100 to 1,150. The Bottom Line: The overall market should move higher.

Today's Opinion: Closed @ 963.59 Current Expections: Called higher with a close of 951.48 on May 27th. The S&P 500 should move higher and test 965.80 and then

The NASDAQ 100 Index closed Friday @ 1,197.89 up 16.07 points. The NASDAQ 100 (NDX) resumed its move higher after the Memorial Day weekend concluded. The chart of the NDX continues to look very solid. Many of the companies that comprise the NDX have seen a growth in their earnings that have allowed their P/E ratios to return to realistic level or they are in the process of solving the problems that have plagued them over the course of the last couple of years. I am expecting the NDX to continue to move higher and test 1,325.80 on a closing basis.

Current Opinion: Closed @ 1,197.89 Current Expectations: Called higher with the close on May 27th @ 1,172.58. The NDX should move higher and test 1,325.80 on a closing basis.