US markets end higher

CNBC's Margaret Brennan - Producer prices soured in March in the US up 1.1%, beyond Wall Street’s expectations of a 0.6% increase. Excluding food and energy increases though, the core index showed a mild rate of growth, the Dow gained 60 points and the NASDAQ ended the day 10 points higher, and financial stocks did see gains by comments from the CEO of Lehman Bros. Richard S. Fuld, He said that the worst of the current financial crisis is over. Shares of Lehman traded up fractionally, JP Morgan and Citigroup saw bigger gains of more than 1% of Tuesday’s session.

Washington Mutual did report a USD 1 billion Q1 loss and says that they have set aside USD 3.5 billion of provision to cover potential loan losses as the economy weakens. The lender previously announced that it will raise USD 7 billion from a group of investors led by Texas’s specific group. Stocks overall gained but Crude Oil, gained more than USD 2 to close at USD 113.79/bbl marking its second all time high in two days.