Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures were mixed on Friday morning after the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a new 2023 high and capped off its best month in more than a year.
Futures tied to the 30-stock index extended gains marginally and climbed 49 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures were essentially flat.
Traders were waiting to see what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will say later Friday. Powell is speaking in a fireside chat at 11 a.m. ET at Spelman College. November’s big rally was due in part to traders beginning to believe the Fed was done raising rates and that the central bank may even start cutting them in the first half of next year. The Fed next decides on rates on Dec. 13.
Disney shares moved up less than 1% in premarket trading after the entertainment giant reinstated its dividend. Ulta Beauty jumped nearly 12% on strong quarterly results.
Friday’s muted moves come on the heels of an exhilarating end to a blowout November rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 520 points, or 1.47%, to settle at 35,950.89 and top its previous 2023 high hit in August. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped about 0.2%.
Stocks finished off a record November during Thursday’s session and snapped a three-month losing streak. The S&P and Nasdaq rallied 8.9% and 10.7%, respectively, to notch their best monthly performances since July 2022. The Dow surged 8.8% for its best month since October 2022.
Both the Dow and S&P are also headed for a winning week, with the Dow on pace to hit a fifth consecutive winning week for the first time in more than two years. The Nasdaq is down about 0.2% week to date and is slated to snap a four-week wining streak.
Despite Thursday’s big market win and November’s upbeat market sentiment, some on Wall Street are advising that investors remain cautious into year-end and 2024.
“Everyone’s really happy and it’s time for either a correction or some sort of pullback as we enter the new year,” Wells Fargo’s Chris Harvey told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday.
The head of equity research added that the market looks “dramatically overbought,” rate cuts seem unlikely until the second half of 2024, and that investors should consider getting defensive.
Looking ahead, earnings reports from Dominion Energy, Gartner and Cardinal Health are due out Friday. Construction spending for October and ISM Manufacturing data for November are also on deck.