NEW YORK — The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower Friday morning, holding near record territory a day after the S&P 500 closed above 7,800 for the first time ever, as Wall Street weighed cooling inflation data against a mixed batch of individual company earnings.

The Dow stood at 53,771.09 as of 9:32 a.m. Eastern time, down roughly 0.08% from Thursday's close. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% and the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.2% in early trading, with both indexes on pace for weekly gains even as the Dow lagged behind.

Friday's modest pullback followed a strong session Thursday, when the S&P 500 rose 0.65% to a record close of 7,798.99, after briefly touching an intraday high above 7,800 for the first time in the index's history. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.81% to close at 26,803.03, lifted by gains in Meta Platforms, Micron Technology and Netflix, while the Dow added a more modest 69.72 points, or 0.13%, to close at 53,839.99.

Thursday's rally was driven in large part by easing concerns over the path of Federal Reserve interest rate policy following cooler-than-expected inflation data. The Consumer Price Index rose just 0.1% in July, putting the annual inflation rate at 3.4%, matching consensus estimates from economists polled by Dow Jones. Core CPI, which........

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