Tech stocks advanced late Wednesday afternoon, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) rising 2.2% and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) climbing 3.5%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index added 2.5%.
In corporate news, Alphabet's (GOOG) Google said the Associated Press agreed to provide real-time information to Gemini chatbot users. Alphabet shares rose 3.1%.
Bio-key International (BKYI) shares surged 55% after the firm said that the National Bank of Egypt is deploying the company's PortalGuard identity and access management platform and an Identity Governance solution.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares added 2.7%. The company launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat that adds "pay-as-you-go agents" to the current free chat service for commercial clients of Microsoft 365.
Quantum computing stocks rose after a Microsoft blog post said 2025 is the year to get "quantum ready." Rigetti Computing (RGTI) shares jumped over 21%, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) gained 22%, and IONQ (IONQ) surged 34%.
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