GLOBAL MARKETS-Global stocks rally hits pause; dollar stays on back foot

Updates to Asia afternoon

By Rae Wee and Koh Gui Qing

SINGAPORE/NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Global stocks eased on Thursday, halting a rally sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's mammoth spending plans for artificial intelligence infrastructure as some of that excitement fizzled out, though Chinese shares fared better on Beijing's support.

Stock futures pointed to a negative open in Europe and the U.S., with EUROSTOXX 50 futures STXEc1 falling 0.23%. FTSE futures FFIc1 eased 0.3%.

Nasdaq futures NQc1 lost 0.17%, while S&P 500 futures ESc1 slipped 0.09%.

Trump's announcement of a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment plan from a venture involving Oracle ORCL.N, OpenAI and SoftBank 9984.T late on Tuesday had initially turbocharged a rally in global share markets, which drew further support from upbeat earnings results.

Those developments initially overshadowed concerns over Trump's plans for tariffs, sending the pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX to a record high in the previous session along with Wall Street's S&P 500 .SPX.

"Clearly, the path of least resistance continues to lead to the upside in the equity space, with participants ably shrugging off tariff-related uncertainties for now," said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.

"That said, next week brings a chunky slate of event risk, including the first FOMC decision of the year, as well as earnings from megacaps... It wouldn't be too surprising to see some equity longs trimmed into that bonanza."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was similarly on track to snap a seven-day winning streak on Thursday and was last 0.15% lower, after getting a brief lift earlier in the session on the back of Beijing's latest measures to shore up its crumbling stock market.

China announced plans to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state-owned insurers into shares, just after Trump said he was proposing to slap a 10% punitive duty on Chinese imports.

Chinese stocks surged more than 1% on the back of the news, though gave up some of those gains over the course of the trading session.

The CSI300 blue-chip index .CSI300 edged up 0.19%, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC advanced 0.53%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index .HSI last traded 0.6% lower.

"The persistent underperformance of China equities is a barometer of the country's fundamental economic difficulties, along with falling bond yields," said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

"They point to the domestic difficulties. And U.S. tariffs will worsen the problem especially with China growing more reliant on net exports to power growth."

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei .N225 gained 0.8%. Shares of SoftBank 9984.T jumped 5%, with the company having come under the spotlight due to the Stargate AI joint venture.

The Information reported on Wednesday that OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund the project.

TARIFF THREATS

Moves in currencies were largely subdued on Thursday after a volatile few sessions since Trump's return to the White House, owing to his plans around tariffs.

Adding to his threats on Chinese imports, Trump also said Mexico and Canada could face levies of around 25% by Feb. 1.

Similarly, he promised duties on European imports, without elaborating further.

Still, investors cheered that tariffs had not been imposed immediately, which left the dollar broadly on the back foot.

The U.S. dollar index =USD, which measures the currency against six others, languished near a two-week low of 108.26.

The euro EUR=EBS was little changed at $1.0408, while sterling GBP=D3 last bought $1.2318.

China's yuan CNY=CFXS dipped slightly to 7.2812 per dollar in the onshore market.

"The threat of tariffs continues to hang over markets, but the rapidly declining half life of headlines shows you the market is already numb to the shenanigans," said Brent Donnelly, president at Spectra Markets.

Ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy decision on Friday, the dollar rose to a one-week high against the yen JPY=EBS at 156.76. Markets have already fully priced in a 25-basis-point rate hike at the conclusion of the meeting. 0#JPYIRPR

Norges Bank will announce its rate decision later on Thursday, where expectations are for Norway's central bank to stand pat. 0#NOKIRPR

In commodities, oil prices eased, pressured in part by concerns over how Trump's proposed tariffs could affect global economic growth and demand for energy.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell 0.41% to $78.68 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 slipped 0.45% to $75.10 per barrel. O/R

Spot gold XAU= was steady at $2,754.49 an ounce. GOL/