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Doug Krizner: Wall Street’s in the flow of quarterly earnings. After the bell today we get results from business software giant Oracle. What Oracle reports could have a cascading effect on the market. Marketplace’s Lisa Napoli looks at why.

Lisa Napoli: Call it a bellwether or harbinger, or just call it an Oracle. What happens to the software giant is seen as an economic indicator.

Eric Savitz: Oracle is a real window on the current status of corporate spending, particularly as it applies to the technology business.

That’s tech editor Eric Savitz of Barron’s. He says if companies aren’t buying Oracle’s software, that’s got implications for others in the tech sector and beyond.

Savitz: It would be a bad sign for all the other hardware and software companies that are providers to the corporate IT world.

No matter what Oracle’s news is today, Dan Burrows of Smart Money says everyone will be looking for clues in the quarterly report:

Dan Burrows: It’s the kind of thing you really hope that, you know, Oracle comes out and hits their numbers and doesn’t say anything too pessimistic that’s going to really spook tech investors.

Early reports show analysts weighing in on the optimistic side.

In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.