Oracle and Adobe rallied nearly 3% each Monday ahead of their earnings reports.

Both technology bellwethers will report results after the market close on Tuesday.

Oracle is expected to report a 23% jump in quarterly sales to $4.33 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Earnings are expects to climb by four cents a share to 23 cents.

Analysts believe Adobe will report sales of $655.6 million, flat with the year-ago quarter, and earnings are expected to decline 10% to 29 cents a share. Growth will return in the current quarter with the release of Creative Suite 3 next week.

The broader market posted strong gains Monday on another round of mergers and optimism ahead of Wednesday's Federal Reserve decision on interest rates, even though inflation reports last week suggested that the Fed will have a difficult time cutting interest rates to stem the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

Oracle shares shot higher in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company's quarterly results solidly beat Wall Street estimates.

Oracle grew sales 27% in the quarter to $4.41 billion, beating $4.33 billion forecasts, and pro forma earnings of 25 cents a share were two cents ahead of estimates. New license sales — an important indicator of future growth — were also stronger than expected, up 17% for databases and middleware and up 57% for applications.

"Not only are we growing faster than BEA, we're now larger than they are in the middleware business," boasted CEO Larry Ellison in a statement, and President Charles Phillips added that the company is closing in on SAP in the applications business.

Oracle shares gained 4% in late trading.

Adobe , meanwhile, saw its shares gain 2% on its numbers.

Adobe's sales of $649.4 million were below $655.6 million estimates, while pro forma earnings of 30 cents a share were a penny better than expected, but traders are looking past the current quarter to new releases such as Creative Suite 3.

"As Adobe prepares for the biggest product launch in our history, we are excited about our opportunities and bullish about our prospects for another year of strong performance," CEO Bruce Chizen said in a statement.

Adobe's current quarter sales out look of $700-$740 million compared favorably to $717 million estimates.

Labels: Adobe, Oracle