Markets fell Wednesday, with both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 losing .6%. No groups were immune from the softness. Interesting was the activity in the utility group as the XLU lost 1%. I did mention in yesterdays blog the fact that I thought there was an excessive amount of optimism surrounding the sector. The software group which we have been concerned of for about a month now continued to show why today. MANH one of the better looking charts out there, with its tight, gradual gains along its uptrend, was hammered today by 7%. When you see pretty charts like that start to act that erratic all of a sudden, it normally pays to take some money off the table in the stock. Two big, mature names in the group reported last night in ORCL and ADBE, and they were both lower, although ORCL made an impressive intraday reversal near the 50 day SMA. Alarming were the moves in some of the newer, more nimble names in the sector like SPLK DATA MKTO. SPLK had an ugly, bearish reversal week, the week ending 2/28 from all time highs, a red flag. It fell almost 14 handles from its weekly high. DATA looks the best in the group technically here and look for an entry near the 50 day SMA at 86, for a good risk/reward trade. Notice the 50 day aligns near the 2/5 earnings gap of 13%. MKTO is up 7% this week so far with a nice move off 200 day support. It will celebrate its first birthday in exactly two months.

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