Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Cal-Maine Earnings Top Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.84 percent to 26,135.31 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.75 percent to 7783.00. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.75 percent to 2,855.8.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the financial shares rose 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Golden Bull Ltd DNJR up 8 percent, and Trupanion Inc TRUP up 5 percent.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.6 percent.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods Inc CALM reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter.

Cal-Maine reported quarterly earnings of $0.82 per share on sales of $383.992 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.43 per share on sales of $370.76 million.

Equities Trading UP

Pulmatrix Inc PULM shares got a boost, shooting up 60 percent to $2.04 after the company reported that it entered into a binding term sheet with Cipla Technologies for development and commercialization of Pulmazole.

Shares of Sorl Auto Parts, Inc. SORL shot up 9 percent to $3.13 after the company reported a mixed Q4 report and issued better-than-expected FY19 guidance.

Jaguar Health Inc JAGX shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $0.32 after Oasis Capital, LLC disclosed a 9.99 percent holding in Jaguar Health.

Equities Trading DOWN

comScore, Inc. SCOR shares dropped 21 percent to $15.94 after the CEO left the company and the stock was downgraded by Loop Capital and Oppenheimer.

Shares of New Concept Energy, Inc. GBR were down 13 percent to $1.960 after surging 23.76 percent on Friday.

YETI Holdings, Inc. YETI was down, falling around 7 percent to $28.30 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company's stock from Overweight to Equal-Weight.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2 percent to $60.87 while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,299.20.

Silver traded up 0.1 percent Monday to $15.115, while copper rose 0.6 percent to $2.954.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.9 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.6 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.5 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.9 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.7 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.7 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales fell 0.2 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent rise.

The manufacturing PMI for March is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.

U.S. business inventories increased 0.8 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent gain.

The ISM manufacturing composite index rose to 55.30 in March, versus prior reading of 54.20. Economists projected a reading of 54.20.

U.S. construction spending rose 1 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent increase.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.