Wall Street to open flat after data; oil pares losses

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open little changed on Friday, the last trading day of the quarter, as oil prices pared losses and investors assessed a set of key economic data.

Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in August, while core personal consumption expenditure - the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation - rose 0.2 percent and was in line with analysts' estimates.

The markets are expected to be volatile in the coming weeks as the third-quarter earnings season approaches and uncertainty looms over the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November.

Brent crude was down 0.15 percent, after falling as much as 1.7 percent earlier.

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Thursday amid choppy trading as banks took a beating due to declines in Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo, whose chief executive was rebuked by lawmakers for his handling of sales abuses.

Deutsche Bank's stock touched a record low on Friday on news that a number of hedge funds had pulled out collateral as the bank faces a $14 billion demand from U.S. authorities for misselling mortgage-backed securities.

Shares of JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup were up about 0.4 percent in premarket trading on Friday.

"Wall Street was right to worry about Deutsche Bank, but yesterday was a bit of an over reaction, and we're walking back a little bit today," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

"The spotlight is likely to still be on financials."

Dow e-minis were down 14 points, or 0.08 percent at 8:33 a.m. ET, with 33,597 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, with 251,019 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 0.75 points, or 0.02 percent, on volume of 37,559 contracts.

At 10:00 a.m. ET, investors will get the final reading on the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index, which is expected to have edged up to 90 this month from 89.8 the previous month.

Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan is scheduled to speak at an event at 1:00 p.m. ET.

CalAmp was down 13.2 percent after the wireless device maker reported quarterly revenue that missed analysts' estimates.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)