Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Rally as INSYS Therapeutics Drops on Fraud Headline

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.67 percent to 16,694.95 while the NASDAQ jumped 1.74 percent to 4,143.89. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.91 percent to 1,895.06.

Basic materials shares jumped about 1.72 percent in Monday's trading. Leading the sector was strength from Century Aluminum Co

and Horsehead Holding

. In trading on Monday, utilities shares dropped by 0.13 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Exelon

, down 1.2 percent, and Vectren

, off 2.3 percent.

Hillshire Brands Co

announced its plans to buy Pinnacle Foods

for around $6.6 billion including debt. Hillshire will offer $18.00 in cash and 0.50 shares of its common stock for each Pinnacle share.

Tesaro

shares shot up 20.78 percent to $29.00 after the company reported successful primary and secondary endpoints in final Phase 3 trial for rolapitant. Shares of Pinnacle Foods

got a boost, shooting up 12.28 percent to $34.18 after Hillshire Brands Co

announced its plans to buy Pinnacle Foods for around $6.6 billion including debt. Iridium Communications

was also up, gaining 10.72 percent to $7.54 after the company caught an upgrade to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie Monday morning.

Shares of Core Laboratories NV

were 16.38 percent to $158.05 after the company lowered its forecast for the second quarter and FY14. INSYS Therapeutics

was also down, falling 15.14 percent to $27.73 after news broke that a doctor had fraudulently prescribed its drug Subsys. The Hillshire Brands Company

was down, falling 4.85 percent to $35.20 after the company announced its plans to buy Pinnacle Foods.

In commodity news,

to $100.62, while gold traded up 0.68 percent to $1,296.40. Silver traded up 2.03 percent Monday to $19.56, while copper rose 2.01 percent to $3.14.

European shares

today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.71 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.76 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.48 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX jumped 1.26 percent and the French CAC 40 surged 0.37 percent while UK shares rose 0.55 percent.

The U.S. Treasury monthly budget report for April will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.