Although the news is certainly not a positive, we do not believe it is a 'death blow' either.

Oracle continues to be a margin expansion story and we expect that trend to continue this quarter. We expect the increased operating leverage to come in the form of lower sales and marketing expenses.

Investors should view both the DOJ's and Microsoft's remedy proposals as the two end points in the spectrum of possible outcomes. However, given Judge Jackson's negative stance toward Microsoft throughout the entire legal proceeding, we suspect that the remedy judgment will more closely align with the government's proposal than Microsoft's version.

The market reflected losses on foreign exchanges. We're waiting for positive news. We did not have any large sellers. I expect the market to recover next week after this week's fall.

I continue to believe that locally, we continue to benefit from a positive bounce in shipyard-related news (despite) higher gasoline prices and other national news that might cause people to be cautious.

Acquisition news is quite positive because it indicates a looking-ahead and willing-to-spend mentality. This expansion is 2-1/2 years old and the consumer has more than done his or her part. Now is the time you need corporations to be willing to spend their very good earnings and their tremendous cash balances.