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* U.S., European stocks rise; global stocks up overall
* China stocks slump 6 pct before G-20 summit in Shanghai
* Crude oil prices fall, but remain above lows
By Dion Rabouin
NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Equity markets shrugged off
crude oil's decline on Thursday, with Europe rebounding from
losses spurred by fears of Britain exiting the European Union
and Wall Street boosted by growing investor confidence.
U.S. stock indexes advanced, buoyed by robust manufacturing
data that pointed to a recovery in the struggling sector.
"Overall, the tone of the market has gotten much better in
the last week, and nothing happened overnight to dent that
optimism, even with China down nearly 6 percent," said Michael
James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities
in Los Angeles.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 90.47 points,
or 0.55 percent, to 16,575.46, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 7.25
points, or 0.38 percent, to 1,937.05 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 4.20 points, or 0.09 percent, to 4,546.80.
"The market's Teflon capabilities continue to demonstrate
themselves again today as they have in the last week such that
any signs of negativity are for the most part being shrugged
off," James said.
China's SSE (L:SSE) Composite Index fell 6.4 percent, the biggest
day of losses in a month. The slump in Shanghai, where markets
have lost more than half their value since June, underscored a
sense of caution over the world's No. 2 economy ahead of
Friday's G20 meeting there.
Pressure is on the G20 leaders to get the global economy
back on track and to calm markets after one of the rockiest
starts to a year on record.
The IMF called on Wednesday for those countries that still
have money available to help boost growth and
Chinese officials, speaking as G20 delegates started to arrive,
moved to ease fears about another sharp drop in the yuan.
Crude oil futures fell around 2 percent, with global
benchmark Brent crude down 2.3 percent and U.S. light crude
falling 1.7 percent.
Equity markets and oil prices have mirrored each other this
year so far, but analysts say they expect the two to decouple in
the not-too-distant future.
MSCI's gauge of global stock markets .MIWD00000PUS was up
0.86 percent.
Europe's FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 , which has lost almost 4
percent since Tuesday, was up 2 percent as risk appetite
returned.
Britain's sterling was slightly higher at $1.3944 GBP=D4 ,
taking a breath from a 5 percent fall since early this month on
fears that a public vote on June 23 could see Britain become the
first country to quit the 28-member European Union.
Dealers said there were also signs of downward pressure
building on the euro ahead of next month's European Central Bank
meeting, which is expected to see the bank cut rates again. Euro
zone long-term inflation expectations fell to record lows on
Thursday.
The dollar struggled to make much headway, however, due to
doubts over whether the Fed will raise rates at all this year.
The euro edged up 0.15 percent to $1.1027 EUR=EBS .
Gold XAU= erased early losses and rose about 0.85 percent
to $1,240 an ounce, within sight of a one-year high of $1,260.60
reached on Feb. 11. GOL/