Stock futures were slightly lower on Friday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average flatlining after it had notched a new 2023 high and capped off its best month in more than a year. Futures tied to the 30-stock index shed 6 points, or less than 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures declined about 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. 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 nearly 0.4% in premarket trading after the entertainment giant reinstated its dividend. Ulta Beauty jumped 11.4 % 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. U.S. Treasury yields dipped on Friday as investors awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The yield on the 2-year Treasury was 2 basis points lower at 4.696%. The 10-year Treasury yield was last at 4.332% after declining by around 2 basis points. Asia-Pacific markets started Friday lower, breaking ranks with Wall Street which mostly advanced on Thursday, amid mixed economic data from across the region. Most notably, investors assessed China’s Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for November, which showed that the sector unexpectedly expanded. The Caixin PMI reading came in at 50.7, compared to 49.5 in October and beating a Reuters poll forecast of 49.8. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 inched down 0.2% and closed at 7,073.2, ending a three-day winning streak. South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 1.19%, leading losses in Asia and ending at 2,505.01, while the small cap Kosdaq was down 0.53% at 827.24. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was ended the day down 0.17% at 33,431.51, but the Topix bucked the wider trend and closed up 0.32% at 2,382.52. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.1% in its final hour of trade, while China’s CSI 300 index dropped 0.38%, ending at 3,481.88 and hitting its lowest level since Oct. 24. Oil prices were down on Friday following a 2% drop on Thursday, with the market seemingly unconvinced that the latest round of production cuts by the OPEC+ coalition will be able to lift prices out of their recent slump. Brent crude futures for February dropped 20 cents, or 0.25%, to $80.66 a barrel by on their first day as the front-month ICE Brent contract. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 17 cents, or 0.22%, to $75.79 a barrel. OPEC+ producers agreed on Thursday to remove around 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from the global market in the first quarter of next year, which included a rolling over of Saudi Arabia and Russia’s current 1.3 million bpd of voluntary cuts. Gold prices were set for a third straight weekly gain after data showing easing inflation raised expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would soon start cutting interest rates, with Chair Jerome Powell’s speech later on Friday in focus. Spot gold rose 0.11% to $2,037.99 per ounce. The metal rose $60 in November in its second straight monthly gain. U.S. gold futures for February delivery rose 0.11% to $2,040.3.