01:38 PM EDT, 03/14/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were lower Thursday afternoon, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) marginally decreasing and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) falling 2.3%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index dropped 1.7%.

In corporate news, Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Oracle (ORCL) said Thursday they are adding five more regions to their database collaboration, bringing the total planned multi-cloud availability footprint to 15 globally. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares added 2.1% and Oracle was down 0.1%.