-- Tech stocks were higher late Thursday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) up 1% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) adding 2.4%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index increased 0.8%.
In corporate news, a White House official told Cabinet department officials that the Office of Management and Budget is setting up protections that will allow federal agencies to begin using Amazon-backed (AMZN) Anthropic's new AI model Mythos, Bloomberg reported, citing an email from OMB Chief Information Officer Gregory Barbaccia. Amazon shares were up 0.2%.
Oracle (ORCL) said Thursday it plans to expand its multi-cloud networking capabilities to provide connectivity between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Amazon's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services. Oracle shares gained 5.1%.
IBM (IBM) will likely exceed Wall Street's estimates for Q1 and raise its revenue guide amid momentum in the software segment and an earlier completion of the Confluent acquisition, Oppenheimer said in a note Thursday. IBM shares climbed 2.2%.
Meta Platforms (META) said it will raise its prices for Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S headsets, starting April 19, to offset the rising costs of hardware components. Meta shares rose 0.6%.