The S&P 500 closed the first trading day of September near the flatline as the strength in technology shares faded, while investors digested a disappointing employment report.

The broad equity index gained just 1.41 points on Wednesday to 4,524.09 as losses in energy offset gains in utilities and real estate.  

The S&P 500 has had a pretty smooth ride so far in 2021, up more than 20% without even a 5% pullback. The benchmark has closed above its 200-day moving average, a measure of the long-term trend, for 296 days in a row.

U.S. companies created far fewer jobs than expected in August, with private payrolls rising just 374,000, according to payroll services firm ADP. That was well below the Dow Jones estimate of 600,000.

The ADP report is a precursor to the official August U.S. non-farm payrolls data, which will be released Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 720,000 jobs were created in August and the unemployment rate fell to 5.2%.

U.S. stock futures were little changed early Thursday morning after the S&P 500 finished the first trading session of the month near the flatline.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3% to 15,309.38 to eke out a record close after trading 0.8% higher earlier in the day. Apple jumped as much as 2% to an all-time high, but pared gains to about 0.5%.

Investors are expecting the weekly initial jobless claims report Thursday and the Labor Department’s non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which could provide clues on Fed policy.