-- Tech stocks were higher Wednesday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) rising 1.9% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) up 1.3%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index climbed up 2.3%.
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, 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 1.8%.
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 1.5%.
Datadog (DDOG) is positioned for solid fiscal Q1 results, with about 3% upside to consensus revenue estimates driven by steady core demand and continued enterprise adoption, Oppenheimer said in a note. Datadog shares rose 1%.