02:02 PM EDT, 07/17/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were higher Thursday afternoon, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) rising 1% and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) adding 1.4%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index advanced 0.9%.

In corporate news, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) cut an undisclosed number of jobs at its Amazon Web Services unit. Separately, Amazon ( AMZN )-backed Anthropic is in the preliminary stages of planning a new round of investment that may value the AI startup at over $100 billion, Bloomberg reported. Amazon ( AMZN ) shares were up 0.3%.

Pagaya Technologies ( PGY ) shares jumped 22% after the firm said it expects Q2 revenue to surpass its own guidance.

Meta's (META) shareholders suing CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other company leaders have agreed to settle litigation over Facebook's alleged user privacy violations, ending an $8 billion trial, Reuters reported. Separately, Meta appointed Connor Hayes as head of Threads, Axios reported. Hayes replaces Adam Mosseri, who is the head of Instagram and has overseen Threads since its inception, the report said. Meta shares eased 0.2%.