* India lifts interest rates overnight, UK Q4 GDP shrinks
* U.S. november home prices down for 5th straight month
* U.S. crude inventories seen up for second week - poll
* Coming up: API weekly crude stocks at 2130 GMT
(Updates prices, adds data)
By Zaida Espana
LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Crude futures fell more than $1
on Tuesday as fresh data sparked renewed doubts about the pace
of the global recovery, and ahead of an expected build-up in
U.S. inventories later.
By 1440 GMT, U.S. crude benchmark <CLc1> West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) was down $1.16 at $86.71 a barrel, while
Brent future prices <LCOc1> were down $1.44 to $95.17 a barrel.
Prices were also lower across the commodity complex, with
copper hitting one-month lows and gold falling to its lowest in
three months after India raised interest rates overnight,
sparking fresh worries about oil appetite in emerging economies.
[]
"Everything is down today, not just crude," Commerzbank's
Carsten Fritsch said.
In a session thick with data, investors weighed the fifth
consecutive fall in U.S. single family home prices in November,
according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, although
the falls were not as sharp as those predicted by economists.
[]
A surprise contraction in fourth-quarter UK GDP also weighed
on sentiment, pulling the euro <EUR=> off two-month highs.
[]
"The UK GDP data is very much isolated, but basically it's
an illustration of the type of growth we are going to get in
2011, particularly in Europe," CA CIB's Christophe Barret said.
As the Fed's two-day FOMC meeting got underway, investors
also awaited U.S. weekly inventory data, the January reading of
U.S. consumer confidence due at 1500 GMT, as well as a slew of
earnings reports.
U.S. INVENTORY DATA IN FOCUS
Weekly U.S. crude oil inventories probably rose last week as
imports increased, a Reuters poll of analysts showed ahead of
data from industry body API on Tuesday and from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration on Wednesday. []
Crude oil and gasoline stocks rose in the week to Jan. 21 by
900,000 barrels and 2.2 million barrels respectively, the poll
showed, with distillate stocks down by 200,000 barrels.
Brent's premium over West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
<CL-LCO1=R>, came in to around $8.46 a barrel by 1441 GMT from
yesterday's intraday high at $9.76 a barrel.
"The WTI forward curve has steepened further at the front
end, because the front-month futures contract has come under
greater pressure than the contracts thereafter," Commerzbank
analysts said in a note.
"The background here is the expectation of an inventory
build in the U.S., which in turn will gain additional support
from the contango shape of the forward curve."
Despite today's crude futures price correction, analysts
polled by Reuters revised their 2011 forecasts upwards by around
$4 in January citing Chinese demand, while warning that gains
over $100 a barrel would be short-lived as inventories remain
strong. []
Goldman Sachs analysts in a note on Tuesday said cyclical
commodities such as oil and copper have entered a bull market
after joining the rally in agricultural commodities, even as
gold prices have faltered.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing
by Jason Neely)
