Wall Street is off to a sluggish start while Delta soars on stronger outlook

U.S. stocks edged lower in early trading Thursday as Delta Air Lines led a rally in airline stocks after releasing a solid outlook for the rest of this year and new government data showed fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The benchmark index remains near the record it set last week after a better-than-expected June jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 55 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:03 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower a day after climbing to an all-time high.

Bond yields were mostly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.36%, up from 4.34% late Wednesday.

Delta surged 12%, bringing other airlines along with it, after beating Wall Street's revenue and profit targets. The Atlanta airline also gave a more optimistic view for the remaining summer travel season than it had just a couple months ago.

Delta and other major U.S. carriers had pulled or slashed their forecasts in the spring, citing macroeconomic uncertainty amid President Donald Trump's tariff rollouts which had consumers feeling uneasy about spending on travel.

Delta's encouraging report boosted the entire airline sector. United jumped 10.1%, American climbed 7.9% and JetBlue rose 4.8%.

Shares of WK Kellogg climbed more than 30% after Italian candy maker Ferrero agreed to acquire the cereal company in a deal valued at roughly $3.1 billion. The transaction includes the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of WK Kellogg Co.'s portfolio of breakfast cereals across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

In economic news, the Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, fell last week, remaining in the historically healthy range they've been in the past couple of years.

It's been a choppy week for the stock market as Wall Street monitors the latest developments in President Donald Trump's renewed push to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe.

Wednesday was initially set as a deadline by Trump for countries to make deals with the U.S. or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April, one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam, the window for negotiations has been extended to Aug. 1.

European stock indexes were mostly higher Thursday following a mixed finish in Asian markets.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 %, weighed down by selling of exporters' shares amid the yen's appreciation, which cuts profits from exports, and dampened sentiment because of the lack of progress in the Japan-U.S. trade talks.