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STORY: U.S. stocks finished mixed Thursday ahead of a key labor market report.

The Dow climbed two-tenths of one percent, while the S&P 500 ended just under break-even, and the Nasdaq lost one tenth.

The S&P and Nasdaq did touch intraday highs earlier in the session but then retreated as technology stocks slipped.

On Friday, the crucial May nonfarm payrolls report comes out before the opening bell and CFRA Chief Investment Strategist Sam Stovall says he thinks it won’t contain any surprises.

“Well, our expectation is pretty much similar to the street itself. We expect to see 190,000 new jobs. We expect the unemployment rate to remain at about at 3.9%. We also are looking for, Uh, the year on year wage growth to stay the same at about 4%. So nothing really new in that regard. And if we're wrong actually possibly we are overstating the job growth that maybe we do see a slip as was hinted at by the ADP report on Wednesday. Even though ADP is not a a very good correlation with the monthly unemployment rate.”

The weekly jobless claims report out Thursday was the latest data to indicate labor market easing, which could allow the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates.

Stocks on the move included Smucker, which rose 4.5% after the Jif peanut butter maker topped Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit helped by higher prices of condiments and frozen food as well as lower input costs.

And Big Lots plunged 18% after the discount retailer posted a wider quarterly loss than anticipated and said net sales fell 10%.