After the close of trading today will come earnings from two key players in technology and communications: Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM).  Traders and investors alike will be looking closely at each report and making sector determinations based upon each report individually.  We have provided basic Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and have added in color for each re
port today.

The caveats and wild card ahead is Japan and the recent turmoil throughout North Africa and the Middle East.  The disruption may have had a small impact on the last quarter but these both could create existing issues for the current quarter that is already underway.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Larry Ellison will be gracing us with earnings after the close.  Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.50 EPS and $8.67 billion in revenues for the last quarter and both estimates have been rounded up from just over the weekend.  Next quarter estimates are $0.66 EPS and $10.50 billion in revenues. 

At $31.83 this afternoon, the 52-week trading range for the enterprise software giant is $21.24 to $33.71.  Oracle has performed well and held up well in the market considering its size and considering the acquisitions it has made.  It also beat earnings last quarter handily and we feel investors are going to demand a repeat performance.

Many are going to pay close attention to currency fluctuations and to margins, but we plan to focus more on the competitive landscape.  We have already begun to decrease margin expectations ahead the more and more that Oracle gets into hardware.  How great can Sun Microsystems be at contributing to gross margins? 

Keep in mind that Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is not in most of the same space of enterprise spending, but traditionally it has been Oracle and Cisco that led investors to interpolate the enterprise spending climate on each other.  This may no longer be fair since Cisco has been dropping the ball. 

The ongoing fight between SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) for market share and then the new infighting with Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) will offer another degree of comparisons to be made.