Even in a daylong sideways drift, the Standard & Poor's 500 index managed to eke out its third record close in three days.
U.S. stocks ended essentially flat on Wednesday after spending much of the day wavering between tiny gains and losses.
The S&P 500 notched a gain of one-tenth of a point over the day before, extending its rise for the week.
Overall trading volume was about one-third below the recent average, reflecting an absence of major market-moving news and the approaching Labor Day holiday weekend.
It was a sharp contrast to the day before, when the S&P 500 closed above 2,000 for the first time.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed opening in premarket trading Wednesday. The major stock indexes opened slightly higher, with the S&P 500 index at 2,001 points.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.31, or 0.1 percent, to 17,122.01. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.02 points to 4,569.62.
The Dow is 16 points shy of its own record closing high set July 16. The Nasdaq is still well below its dot-com era record.