SINGAPORE, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Global stocks were poised

near record highs on Wednesday, with the next move riding on

results at chipmaking market darling Nvidia ( NVDA ), while sterling

notched a 2-1/2 year high as traders bet that Britain will lag

the U.S. in cutting interest rates.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

dipped 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.2%.

Oil retraced a recent spike on Middle East tensions as gloom

on Chinese demand returned to the fore and Brent crude futures

traded just below $80 a barrel.

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) market value has ballooned thanks to its

dominance of the computing hardware behind artificial

intelligence. The stock price is up some 3000% since 2019 and

with a market capitalisation of $3.2 trillion, a move in its

shares affects the entire market.

Second-quarter revenue will likely have doubled, though even

that may disappoint expectations. Options pricing shows traders

anticipate a near 10% - or $300 billion - swing in market value,

likely the largest earnings move of any company, ever.

The results at the "so-called 'most important company in the

world,'" stand between Wall Street and fresh record highs, noted

Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda, and set the tone for the sector.

"The company's revenue and sales guidance is a barometer of

AI capex, with inferences to be drawn about the health of the

other mega-cap tech names," he said.

The S&P 500 went up about 0.2% overnight and futures

drifted 0.1% lower in Asia, while Nasdaq 100 futures

fell 0.3%.

E-commerce shares stabilised in Hong Kong - where the Hang

Seng slipped 0.5% - after taking a kicking following

downbeat remarks from discount online retailer PDD Holdings ( PDD )

earlier in the week.

China's biggest sportswear maker, Anta, was the

top gainer and shares were up 8.5% after better-than-expected

profits and $1.3 billion buyback. Shares in Australian gambling

company Tabcorp slid 12% and headed for their largest

drop since 2020 after the company wrote down asset prices and

said rising costs meant it would miss earnings targets.

Debt and currency markets were steady in the Asia session,

though the Australian dollar popped up about 0.2% to

touch its highest since January at $0.6813 after monthly

inflation data was slightly higher than market expectations.

Globally a weakening dollar in anticipation of U.S. rate

cuts has lifted most other currencies because markets see U.S.

short-term rates, currently above 5.25%, as having furthest to

fall. The yen traded at 144.32 per dollar.

Interest rate futures price 100 basis points of U.S. rate

cuts this year and last week Fed Chair Jerome Powell endorsed an

imminent start to cuts saying "the time has come". The tone

contrasts with caution at the Bank of England, which has helped

sterling become the top-performing G10 currency with a

4.1% gain for the year-to-date.

It hit its highest in more than two years overnight at

$1.3269 and hovered near that level on Wednesday.

"UK services sector inflation...is still uncomfortably

high," Rabobank senior strategist Jane Foley said in a note.

"In our view, the BoE is likely to only cut rates once a

quarter going forward," she said, against a forecast for four

consecutive 25 bp cuts from the Fed from September to January.

Rates markets were steady with 10-year U.S. Treasury yields

at 3.83%, two-year yields at 3.87% and

the gap between the two its narrowest in nearly three weeks.

Heavy selling in the New York evening drove bitcoin

down 4% on the dollar to $59,350. Gold held at $2,517 an

ounce.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)