By Medha Singh and Ankur Banerjee

(Reuters) -Global stocks eased on Thursday after AI bellwether Nvidia’s revenue growth forecast failed to excite investors, while the dollar firmed and bitcoin hit a record high, buoyed by hopes about U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s policies.

Rising tensions this week in the 33-month-old war between Ukraine and Russia weighed on risk sentiment, lifting safe-haven gold and boosting oil prices.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe was little changed, after being range-bound for most of the week. The index hit a record high just last week.

“Equity markets look a bit toppish here. Markets are waiting for some direction,” said Peter Schaffrik, global macro strategist at RBC Capital Markets.

Expectations were high heading into results from the world’s most valuable firm Nvidia, which projected the slowest revenue growth in seven quarters when it reported after Wednesday’s closing bell.

“While we don’t doubt there will be strong demand for Nvidia’s products, that does not mean growth rates will be sustained,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.

“No company experiences this type of growth in perpetuity.”

Its shares, however, pared losses to stand only 1% lower in U.S. premarket trading with Wall Street on track for a slightly higher open. The pan European STOXX 600 edged up 0.1%.

Despite the disappointing forecast, there was a clear indication that momentum in AI was only growing, with supplies being the bigger headwind rather than demand, analysts said.

Bourses in China and Hong Kong were mixed, while tech heavy Taiwan stocks dropped 0.6%.

Attention was also on Indian conglomerate Adani Group after U.S. prosecutors said Gautam Adani, billionaire chair of the group, has been indicted in New York over his role in an alleged multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

The news cut $27 billion in market value from Adani Group companies and dragged India’s benchmark equity indexes lower.

BITCOIN NEARS $100,000

Bitcoin has been on a tear since the Nov. 5 U.S. election as the Trump administration is expected to relax regulations and be crypto friendly.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency soared to a record of $98,367, closing in on the $100,000 milestone.

Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that Trump’s team is holding discussions with the digital asset industry about whether to create a new White House post solely dedicated to crypto policy.

“Bitcoin has got a life of its own after elections,” said Schaffrik. “Equity markets have moved sideways a bit (this week) but bitcoin is a story of its own. It used to be quite correlated with equities earlier, it was a good risk proxy.”

The dollar has also been rising since the election on anticipation that tariffs proposed by the Trump administration will likely be inflationary and keep rates higher for longer.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six others, was at 106.63, not far from the one-year high of 107.07 touched last week. The index has risen more than 2% since the election. [FRX/]

Markets were pricing in a 55.7% chance the Fed lowers borrowing costs by 25 basis points next month, down from 72.2% just a week ago, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.

Two Federal Reserve governors on Wednesday laid out competing visions of where U.S. monetary policy may be heading, with one citing concerns about inflation and another expressing confidence that price pressures will continue to ease.

Across the Atlantic, attention will be on business surveys in the euro zone on Friday that could offer clues on the European Central Bank’s policy path as the bloc’s currency threatens to break below 1.05 level against the dollar, Schaffrik said.

The common currency briefly breached that level on Friday and has moved sideways since. It was last at $1.05255.

The rise in the dollar has pushed the Japanese yen back into intervention territory, leading to verbal warnings from officials. On Thursday, the Japanese currency strengthened to 154.395 per dollar after weakening to as much as 155.86 in the previous session.

Oil prices rose on supply concerns triggered by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine with Brent crude futures firming about 2% to $74.22, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 1.3% at $69.63. [O/R]

Gold prices climbed for a fourth straight session on demand for lower risk assets, with spot gold gaining 0.6% to $2,665 per ounce. [GOL/]

(Editing by William Maclean, Kirsten Donovan)

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