US STOCKS-Futures fall on China inflation concerns

* China tightening fears sends local stocks down 5 pct

* Commodity-related stocks fall premarket

* Futures off: S&P 8.9 pts, Dow 53 pts, Nasdaq 14.25 pts

* For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US] (Updates market activity)

By Edward Krudy

NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks index futures fell on Friday on expectations China would raise interest rates, hitting commodity prices and sending the local stock market into a tailspin.

China stocks fell 5.2 percent on Friday for their biggest percentage loss in over a year, while global commodities tumbled on speculation the central bank is about to raise interest rates to tackle inflation. For details, see [ID:nTOE6AB04G]

"The macro today is the thing that is going to rule," said Kim Caughey, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. "China in the past year, whenever they've raised interest rates, it has hit the market."

Wall Street was set to end a five-week winning streak after rising to levels before the collapse of Lehman Brothers over two years ago. Stocks have stalled after rallying for two months in the run-up to the asset buying plan by the Federal Reserve last week. The S&P 500 is up nearly 16 percent since the end of August.

Resource-related stocks were likely to take the brunt of selling as crude oil dropped 1.7 percent to near $86, while copper fell 1.5 percent. In early trading, Alcoa Inc fell 1.7 percent, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc was off 2.5 percent.

S&P 500 futures declined 8.9 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 fell 53 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 14.25 points.

EU leaders reassured investors they would not be forced to write down the value of their bond holdings in the event of a new euro zone bailout, but that appeared to do little to ease the pressure on futures.

Graphics chipmaker Nvidia forecast higher sales for the current quarter late Thursday and said its mobile business would take off next year when tablets and smartphones will use its Tegra chips. The shares rose 5 percent to $13.24. [ID:nN1146797]

D.R. Horton Inc , the biggest U.S. homebuilder, reported a narrower quarterly loss, citing soft demand after the expiration of the federal government's homebuyer tax credit. [ID:nN12104570]

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers is due to be released at 9:55 a.m. (1455 GMT) preliminary November consumer sentiment index. Economists in a Reuters survey expected a reading of 69.0 compared with 67.7 in the early November report. (Reporting by Edward Krudy; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)