Technology stocks advanced on Wednesday but lost earlier gains after a late session sell-off.

The technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index edged was higher through most of the day before closing up 1.58 points to 2,496.70. The Amex Morgan Stanley Hi Tech index rose 2.66 points to 601.33. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index was up 3.19 points, or 079 percent to 406.31.

Yahoo shares rose after reports that billionaire investor Carl Icahn was moving ahead with plans to initiate a proxy fight to replace members of Yahoo's board.

Yahoo closed up 58 cents, or 2.18 percent to $27.14 after reports that Icahn has chosen at least 10 possible candidates to be Yahoo directors ahead of the company's next shareholder annual meeting. Yahoo had previously rejected a $47.5 billion takeover bid from software giant Microsoft Corp.

Among other well-known technology stocks, Amazon.com fell 0.48 percent, Advanced Micro Devices was down 0.42 percent, Apple declined 1.95 percent, Cisco fell 0.54 percent, Dell shares rose 0.30 percent, eBay shares slipped 0.60 percent, Google stocks were down 1.15 percent, Hewlett-Packard rose 3.09 percent, and Intel rose 0.34 percent.

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