Speaking at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas yesterday, Larry Ellison, CEO of software giant Oracle Corp., gave a cautious outlook for the company's Q2 results.

During the keynote address, Ellison said that due to the difficult economic climate since Sept. 11, results would fall short of Wall Street's estimates for the fiscal second quarter.

He expects earnings to more likely be at 9 or 10 cents per share, missing analysts' earnings expectations of 11 cents per share for the three months ending November 30.

Goldman Sachs had no comment on the expected revenues, but believed the announcement could set a negative tone for Oracle's stock price appoaching the last few weeks of the November quarter.

The analyst firm now expects licensed revenues for Oracle to be down 25 percent, lower than had been proposed by CFO Jeff Henley when he visited with investors in New York last month.

Henley told investors estimates might need to be adjusted as licensed revenues could be down just 20 percent for the current quarter.