Midday movers: Cal-Maine Foods, Palantir, Novartis and more

Investing.com -- Stocks were rising on Wednesday after a lower than expected reading for September private payrolls, which comes just two days before the government's own jobs report for the month.

Here are the stocks that are moving markets today:

• Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ:CALM) fell 6.9% after the egg producer reported first-quarter earnings per share of 2 cents versus analysts' estimates of 33 cents. Revenue of $459.3 million missed projections of $473.37 million, primarily due to the decrease in the net average selling price for conventional eggs.
• Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) shares jumped 5.3% after Bloomberg News reported that the data analysis group is poised to secure a contract to overhaul the UK's National Health Service.
• Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock edged up 0.4% after analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded their rating of the iPhone maker, citing an expected slowdown in sales.
• Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares edged down 0.2% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the streaming service will raise its prices for its ad-free subscription tier.
• Brooge Holdings (NASDAQ:BROG) shares rose 9.3% after the infrastructure provider announced that it had received a takeover offer from UAE-based shipping group Gulf Navigation Holdings.
• Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock rose 0.4% after the semiconductor firm said it planned to spin off its programmable chip unit and hold an initial public offering for the division in two to three years.
• Fluor (NYSE:FLR) shares rose 2.4% after UBS upgraded its rating of the engineering group to buy.
• Novartis (SIX:NOVN) (NYSE:NVS) stock was down 3.4% after the Swiss drugmaker completed a spin-off of its Sandoz generics and biosimilars division. Shares in the new business slipped on their market debut.
• Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares inched up 0.5% after the drugmaker said an early-stage study showed that its combination COVID-19 and influenza vaccine had generated a strong immune response when compared to individual jabs.