01:57 PM EDT, 06/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were slipping Thursday afternoon, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) decreasing 0.3% and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) down 0.6%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index fell 1%.

In corporate news, Ciena's (CIEN) fiscal Q2 results fell less than the market expected while the company said bandwidth demand remains durable in a challenging near-term environment. Ciena shares rose 0.8%.

Smartsheet ( SMAR ) shares surged over 16% after analysts raised their price targets on the company following forecast-beating Q1 results on Wednesday.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) , OpenAI and Nvidia ( NVDA ) will be the subjects of antitrust probes over their dominant roles in the artificial intelligence industry, The New York Times reported. Separately, Microsoft ( MSFT ) is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission to determine whether it structured its licensing deal with startup Inflection AI to circumvent a government antitrust review of the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares were down 0.2% and Nvidia ( NVDA ) was shedding 2%.