Updates prices throughout

By Tom Westbrook

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, while sterling hovered near 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 .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei .N225 was flat.

Oil retraced a recent spike on Middle East tensions as gloom on Chinese demand returned to the fore and Brent crude futures LCOc1 traded just below $80 a barrel. O/R

Nvidia's NVDA.O 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 .SPX went up about 0.2% overnight and futures ESc1 were steady in Asia, while Nasdaq 100 futures NQc1 fell 0.1% and FTSE futures FFIc1 rose 0.2%.

Consumer firms dragged in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng .HIS slipped 1.1%, with a weak result at water bottler Nongfu Spring 9633.HK sending shares down 12% and coming on the heels of downbeat remarks from discount online retailer PDD Holdings.

Shares in Australian gambling company Tabcorp TAH.AH were headed for their largest fall since 2008, dropping 17% to a four-year low after the company warned compliance and other costs meant it would miss earnings targets.

Debt and currency markets were steady in the Asia session, though the Australian dollar AUD=D3 briefly popped to touch its highest since January at $0.6813 after monthly inflation data was slightly above market forecasts.

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 greenback steadied in the Asia session to buy 144.42 yen JPY=EBS and was about 0.3% firmer at $1.1145 per euro.

Interest rate futures price 100 basis points of U.S. rate cuts this year and last week Fed Chair Jerome Powell endorsed the start of cuts saying "the time has come".

The tone contrasts with caution at the Bank of England, which has helped sterling GBP=D3 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 on Tuesday at $1.3269 and eased to $1.3227 in Asia trade. GBP/

"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 US10YT=RR at 3.83%, two-year yields US2YT=RR at 3.87% and the gap between the two at its narrowest in nearly three weeks.

Heavy selling in the New York evening drove bitcoin BTC= down 4% on the dollar to $59,450. Gold XAU= held at $2,517 an ounce.

Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong

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