NEW YORK, April 1 (UPI) -- Major U.S. stock indexes were higher Tuesday morning with investors apparently concluding that bad news from banks signaled an end to the write-down era.

Switzerland's UBS Bank announced $19 billion in first-quarter write-downs Tuesday. Deutsche Bank said it would write down $3.9 billion.

But, "news by UBS and Deutsche Bank gives some hope that the write-downs are nearing an end, presenting buying opportunities in the banks sector," Martin Slaney, trader at GFT Global Markets told The Wall Street Journal.

In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 167.89 points to 12,430.78, up 1.37 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 18.22 points to 1,340.92, up 1.38 percent. The Nasdaq composite index climbed 35.69 points to 2,314.79, up 1.57 percent.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 24/32 to yield 3.511 percent.

The dollar gained. The euro traded at $1.561 from Monday's $1.5787, while the dollar traded at 100.85 yen from Monday's 99.69 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index climbed 130.88 points to 12,656.42, up 1.04 percent.

Suits claim insurers clog Social Security

WASHINGTON, April 1 (UPI) -- Routine referrals from insurers to the U.S. Social Security system costs millions and clogs the system, lawsuits filed against disability insurers claim.

Disability insurance companies can reduce payments to clients dollar for dollar if they are accepted for government disability benefits. They can also put less money in conservative investments, set aside for payments, if the clients apply for the Social Security, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Tuesday.

Lawsuits filed against Cigna Corp (NYSE:CI) and Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) claim the companies force clients to apply for workman's compensation or government disability checks frivolously. The companies reportedly know the government's definition of disability is more stringent than their own but force the clients to apply anyway, the Times says.

"Anybody who is forced to come into this system and who doesn't need to be there is affecting someone else," said former Social Security Administrator Kenneth Nibali.

It costs the government between $1,180 and $4,759 to screen an applicant for disability benefit, Nibali told the Times.

The wait for a hearing from an administrative law judge has grown from 258 to 512 days since 2000, while the number of cases has doubled since that time, the Times said.

UBS and Deutsche Bank report losses

ZURICH, Switzerland, April 1 (UPI) -- Two European banks reported multibillion dollar losses Tuesday related to the U.S. real estate market.

Swiss bank UBS announced write downs amounting to $19 billion and said Chairman Marcel Ospel would be replaced. The bank will nominate UBS General Counsel Peter Kurer to replace Ospel, The New York Times reported.

Germany's Deutsche Bank announced first-quarter losses of $3.9 billion, mostly on asset reductions related to U.S. real estate, the report said.

UBS Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner told the newspaper "the environment remains difficult."

The bank reduced its exposure to the U.S. subprime market from $27.6 billion to $15 billion in the first quarter. It also reduced exposure to the Alt-A market by about $10 billion, the report said.

The bank had already written off $18.1 billion in the last half of 2007, the report said.

Write-downs have reached more than $200 billion for global banks since the U.S. subprime mortgage market began to collapse in the summer of 2007, the Times reported.

Japan's Tankan survey down

TOKYO, April 1 (UPI) -- Business sentiment among major Japanese manufacturers plunged in the first quarter to its lowest since December 2003, the Bank of Japan reported Tuesday.

The central bank's closely watched Tankan survey showed the index fell to 11 from 19 in the earlier quarter ended December largely because of the slowdown in the U.S. economy and its global impact. The index for the 2003 quarter ended in December stood at 7.

The latest decline has caused more companies to become negative about raising capital investment, Kyodo news service reported.

It was also the second consecutive quarter of deterioration in business sentiment among large manufacturers and below the average market forecast of 13 in a Kyodo News survey.

The index for major non-manufacturers' sentiment stood at 12, down from 16 in the previous quarter.

The survey was conducted between Feb. 26 and March 31, and covered 10,705 companies, the report said.

The Tankan index is based on the percentage of companies reporting favorable business conditions less those reporting unfavorable conditions.

The Kyodo report said for the next quarter through June the index is projected to further deteriorate to 7, while that of non-manufacturers to inch up 1 point to 13.