Global Stocks Retreat as Trump's Infrastructure Boost Fades

World stocks retreated on Thursday, taking a breather from the rally sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's trillion-dollar artificial intelligence infrastructure spending plan as some of that enthusiasm dissipated, although Chinese shares outperformed on Beijing's support.

* In Europe, the STOXX 600, which hit a record high on Wednesday, dipped 0.1%, weighed down by a decline in technology stocks which had surged the previous day after Trump announced a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment plan.
* The venture, which involves Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank, initially triggered a rally in global equity markets, which had been supported by upbeat earnings.
* But with still few details on Trump's tariff plans, that momentum fizzled out, with the dollar hovering near two-week lows, while Wall Street stocks hit record highs the previous day.
* U.S. stock index futures pointed to falls of 0.2% to 0.5%.
* In Asia, Chinese stocks rose more than 1% at one point in the session after the government announced plans to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state insurers into equities, just after Trump said he was proposing a 10% punitive tariff on Chinese imports.
* The blue-chip CSI300 index pared some of those gains to end 0.18% higher.
* Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.8%. SoftBank jumped 5%, with the firm in focus because of the Stargate AI venture.
* In addition to his threats over China imports, Trump also said that Mexico and Canada could face tariffs of about 25% on Feb. 1. He has also promised tariffs on European imports, though has given few details.
* The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of six peers, was hovering near a two-week low of 108.26. The euro was little changed at $1.0408, while sterling fell 0.2% to $1.2306.
* The Chinese yuan weakened 0.14% to 7.2931 per dollar in the offshore market, while the dollar hit a one-week high versus the yen at 1156.76.

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* Brent crude futures rose 0.15% to $79.11 a barrel, having earlier fallen as much as 0.5%, while copper prices eased 0.6% to $9,173 a tonne. (Additional reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore and Koh Gui Qing in New York; Editing by Richard Pullin and Mark Trevelyan)