The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that U.S. and Canadian stocks advanced on Wednesday in choppy trading, buoyed as semiconductor stocks on Wall Street rallied late on a report that regulations on artificial-intelligence chips would be loosened. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that for most of the session, stocks bounced around, and trading remained choppy after the Federal Reserve kept U.S. interest rates unchanged. Close to the closing bell, stocks rallied as chipmakers jumped on news that the Trump administration plans to rescind AI chip curbs. The PHLX Semiconductor Index ended 1.7 per cent higher after falling as much as 1 per cent on the day. Earlier, the Fed kept rates steady, with the central bank saying the risks of both higher inflation and unemployment had risen, further clouding the economic outlook as the Fed grapples with the impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies. The Dow was boosted by a 10.8-per-cent jump in Disney shares after quarterly results topped Street expectations. During most of the session, Nasdaq was lower in part owing to weakness in Alphabet, which closed down more than 7 per cent. The S&P/TSX Composite Index ended up 186.46 points at 25,161.18.