Investors prepare for payroll report

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were little changed in a see-saw session that saw light volume on Thursday as investors paused after a four-day rally and ahead of Friday’s key payrolls report.

Wall Street stocks initially climbed after the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) factory activity index stayed above 50, the expansion threshold. But stocks lost altitude by midday.

After dropping more than 17 percent from early July to early August, the S&P 500 is up 9 percent, leaving investors reluctant to place big bets ahead of the government’s August labor report, which is expected to show an increase of 75,000 jobs.

“You are right in between the two points where the market is uncertain in terms of where we are going,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

“The picture that we are getting not only from (manufacturing) numbers, but the ADP number, the regional Fed surveys and the ISM is that the business community and jobs is not falling backward but has kind of slowed to a snail’s pace going forward.”