Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Cal-Maine Foods Profit Beats Views

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.07 percent to 17,527.24 while the NASDAQ declined 0.09 percent to 4,769.16. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.02 percent to 2,035.52. Leading and Lagging Sectors On Monday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained by 0.47 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included New York & Company, Inc. NWY, up 6 percent, and Finish Line Inc FINL, up 7 percent. In trading on Monday, energy shares dipped by 0.36 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Basic Energy Services, Inc BAS, down 8 percent, and Noble Energy, Inc. NBL, down 7 percent. Top Headline Cal-Maine Foods Inc CALM reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Monday. Cal-Maine reported Q3 earnings of $1.33 per share on revenue of $449.8 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.99 per share on revenue of 463.6 million. Equities Trading UP Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc ALDR shares shot up 48 percent to $25.43. Alder reported that it has met primary and secondary endpoints in Phase 2b ALD403 trial. Shares of Centrus Energy Corp LEU got a boost, shooting up 8 percent to $3.51 following the announcement of a $32 million contract. Qlik Technologies Inc QLIK shares were also up, gaining 8 percent to $28.75. Reuters on Friday reported Qlik Technologies is exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale of itself as the company has come under pressure from a major shareholder and activist investor, Elliott Management. Equities Trading DOWN Apricus Biosciences Inc APRI shares dropped 53 percent to $0.639 on discontinuation of fispemifene in secondary hypogonadism. Shares of VirtualScopics Inc VSCP were down 11 percent to $4.00 after the company agreed to be acquired by BioTelemetry, Inc. BEAT for a total purchase of around $15.5 million. Pandora Media Inc P was down, falling around 9 percent to $9.93. Pandora named Tim Westergren as CEO and appointed Mike Herring as President and CFO. Pandora reaffirmed its FY16 sales and adjusted EBITDA outlook. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 1.09 percent to $39.89, while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,221.50. Silver traded up 0.40 percent Monday to $15.26, while copper rose 0.11 percent to $2.23. Eurozone European markets were closed Monday for the Easter holiday. Economics U.S. consumer spending rose 0.10 percent for February, versus economists' expectations for a 0.10 percent growth. The pending home sales index gained 3.5 percent to 109.1 in February, versus a downwardly-revised 105.4 in January. However, economists were projecting a 1 percent growth