Stocks edged mostly lower on Wall Street in afternoon trading Friday, though the market remained on track to notch solid gains for the week after four straight weeks of losses.

Despite marching higher most of this week, the market was set to close out August with a loss. That would be only the second monthly decline this year after May.

Technology, communication services and consumer goods companies declined, outweighing gains elsewhere in the market. Adobe dropped 1%, Netflix lost 1.4% and Altria Group slid 1.3%.

Banks and industrial stocks were among the gainers. Wells Fargo rose 0.7% and General Electric added 1.3%.

The losses erased modest early gains by afternoon in a mostly listless day of trading for the market ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend.

“Going into a holiday weekend you just have three days here where you’re not going to be able to reposition, so people are probably taking some profits and squaring their books ahead of the weekend,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

The S&P 500 was down 0.1% as of 3:42 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to 26,363. The Nasdaq gave up an early gain, sliding 0.4%.

Major stock indexes in Europe closed higher.

While the major U.S. indexes have stemmed some of their losses from earlier this month, they remain down more than 1% for the month.

Trading turned volatile in August as investors worried that the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China and slowing global economy could tip the U.S. into a recession. The bond market seemingly confirmed these fears when long-term bond yields fell below short-term ones, a so-called inversion in the U.S. yield curve that has correctly predicted previous recessions.

“We found the limits of how far both the U.S. and the Chinese side can push the trade issue until it actually starts to manifest itself in markets,” Samana said. “And where you probably saw the bulk of that reaction is in the fixed-income market. That’s why you saw long-term yields basically collapse.”

Bond prices initially fell Friday, but rose by late afternoon. That pushed long-term bond yields further below short-term ones. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.50% from 1.51% late Thursday. The 2-year Treasury yield dropped to 1.51% from 1.55% the day before.

Washington and Beijing are deadlocked in talks over U.S. complaints about China’s trade surplus and industry plans, which its trading partners say are based on stealing or pressuring companies to hand over technology.

Last week, the trade conflict escalated again with both sides threatening new tariffs on each other’s goods, triggering a sharp sell-off in global markets.

Some of the Trump administration’s additional tariffs on Chinese products take effect Sunday and others on Dec. 15. In addition, higher tariffs on a separate group of Chinese products are to take effect Oct. 1.

Still, investors were encouraged by a Chinese government statement Thursday that its penalties on U.S. products are adequate. That suggested Beijing might be pausing in a tit-for-tat cycle of tariff increases by both sides that has raised fears the global economy might tip into recession.

Negotiators meet next month in Washington after the latest round of talks in July in Shanghai produced no sign of progress.

Investors also weighed a mixed batch of corporate earnings reports Friday.

Campbell Soup rose 3.8% and Big Lots added 3.4%. Both companies reported quarterly profits that easily beat analysts’ forecasts. Ulta Beauty plunged 29.1% after reporting weak results and cutting its estimates.

U.S. markets will be closed Monday for Labor Day.