-- Tech stocks were higher late Wednesday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) each adding about 2%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index climbed 2.6%.
In sector news, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into streaming platforms, including Spotify (SPOT), Apple's (AAPL) Apple Music, Amazon's (AMZN) Amazon Music and Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube Music over an alleged scheme in which the platforms accept bribes to artificially promote certain artists, songs or content, according to a statement from Paxton's office.
In corporate news, Seagate Technology (STX) shares rose over 3% after Barclays upgraded the stock to overweight from equalweight and boosted its price target to $625 from $425.
Microsoft (MSFT) has appointed Daniel Shapero to become the chief executive of LinkedIn, the company's executive vice president Ryan Roslansky said in a LinkedIn post Wednesday. Microsoft shares were up 2%.
Sportradar (SRAD) shares fell 22% after Muddy Waters Research and Callisto Research published short reports on the company.
Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud is launching a $750 million fund to help consulting firms such as Accenture (ACN), McKinsey, and Deloitte to get clients to use agentic AI software, Bloomberg reported. Alphabet shares added 2.1%.