The markets opened sharply higher with the Dow jumping 248 points to 17,832 as crude oil prices continued to rebound. Nasdaq soared 66 points to 4,717.

On the upside

Bind Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BIND) reported upbeat interim data for a Phase 2 trial of BIND-014 in metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer and expects its collaboration partners to file an IND with the Food and Drug Administration for Accurin by mid-2015.

Biodel (Nasdaq: BIOD) reported positive preliminary data from a Phase 2a clinical trial of its insulin formulation BIOD-531.

AbbVie (Nasdaq: ABBV) and Neurocrine Biosciences (Nasdaq: NBIX) reported positive results from a Phase 3 clinical trial of elagolix in premenopausal women with endometriosis.

On the downside

Apollo Education (Nasdaq: APOL) reported sharply lower first quarter earnings as revenue fell, forecast current quarter revenue below expectations and lowered its full year outlook.

Insulet (Nasdaq: PODD) lowered its fourth quarter revenue guidance.

Profit taking weighed down shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ARNA).

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 jumped 27 points to 2053. Bitcoin slipped $4 to $281.