NEW YORK (AP) — Traders are pausing Thursday after the stock market's longest rally since July.
Stocks were flat in late morning trading. The Dow Jones industrial average was up five points to 15,331, after adding more than 400 points since Monday. The index is up more than 3.5 percent just this month.
The last three days of gains have helped the Dow recover the bulk of its losses in August, which was the worst month for the blue chip index since May 2012.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index was down less than a point to 1,689 after rising the past seven days. The winning streak is the longest since the index rose for eight straight trading days from July 3 to July 15.
In other trading Thursday, the Nasdaq composite rose five points to 3,730. That followed a sharp decline Wednesday caused by a sell-off in Apple's stock.
Traders continue to watch developments in Syria, where Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday his government has agreed to surrender its chemical weapons in response to a Russian proposal, not because of the threat of an attack from the U.S.
"Syria is still there as a concern, but it's starting to de-escalate," said Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which manages $1.9 billion in assets.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are set to sit down together to discuss details of the plan in Geneva later Thursday. While Syria's economy is too small to have a real impact on the global economy, the country is strategically important for the oil markets.
In corporate news, shares of athletic apparel maker Lululemon dropped after the company trimmed its forecast for sales and profit this year, due partly to a product recall from earlier this year. Lululemon lost $4.46, or 6.5 percent, to $64.57.
Men's Wearhouse struggled after the company also cut its full-year profit forecast. The stock fell $3.86, or 10 percent, to $34.91.
Online radio company Pandora Media climbed $2.17, or 10 percent, to $23.54. The company said late Wednesday it was appointing former Microsoft executive Brian McAndrews as its new chief executive officer.