Wall Street was set for a lower open on Friday as investors assessed the strength of a recent surge that has March on track to see the biggest monthly percentage gain since 1974.

With developments out of Washington increasingly setting the direction for markets, U.S. President Barack Obama will grill top bankers on Friday about developments in the economy and their businesses.

This comes a day after the administration unveiled plans to rewrite financial rules, including setting up a single regulator to monitor firms whose failure could pose a threat to the financial system.

Bank shares were lower before the opening bell, with Bank of America off 3 percent to $7.35 and JPMorgan Chase & Co down 2.6 percent at $28.35.

The recent rally has taken the broad S&P 500 index up 23.1 percent since it hit a 12-year low on March 9, although it is off 7.8 percent for the year so far. At the current pace, the S&P could have its biggest monthly gain in 35 years.

Gains on Thursday helped push the Nasdaq back into positive territory year-to-date as investors snatched up more big-cap technology shares.

Although a bad winter in the market seems to be ending and spring is looming, the next hurdle to show up is going to be earnings, said Andre Bakhos, president of Princeton Financial Group in Princeton, New Jersey. We're a little lower today probably because we've had a good run.

S&P 500 futures fell 8.30 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures slipped 67 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were off 15 points.

Shares of technology outsourcing and consulting firm Accenture were down 9.3 percent at $29.00 in premarket trading after the company reported a drop in quarterly sales and lowered its full-year profit outlook after Thursday's closing bell.

Obama is set to meet with leaders of the biggest U.S. banks at the White House later in the day. Officials said about 15 CEOs were expected to attend, including chief executives from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup .

On the economic front, data showed U.S. consumer spending rose for a second straight month in February, while incomes took back the previous month's gains.

Investors will also get a look at consumer sentiment with a reading from the Reuters/University of Michigan sentiment index at 9.55 a.m. (1355 GMT).

On Thursday stocks rallied on increasing optimism that the worst days of the current economic downturn were over after the government reported data that was less dire than expected.

Analysts said that while recent data signals the economy is starting to show signs of life, the numbers remains gloomy, underscoring the headwinds still facing a recovery.

(Editing by James Dalgleish)

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