Strong Asian data boosts world stocks

China's manufacturing sector staged a moderate rebound in August after slowing for several months, while Australia's economy grew at the fastest pace in three years last quarter.

The strong readings from Asia helped offset concerns that the U.S. economy is slowing to an extent that would force the Federal Reserve to consider easing policy again.

"People are fixated on only two economies in the world: China and the U.S. It becomes a risk-on day if you get good Chinese data and a risk-off day if you get bad U.S. data," said Marc Ostwald, a strategist at Monument Securities in London. The MSCI world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 0.8 percent, moving further away from a seven-week low hit last week. The benchmark index is still down nearly 7 percent since January.

The Thomson Reuters global stock index <.TRXFLDGLPU> rose 0.9 percent.

In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> jumped 1.2 percent, led by mining shares such as Anglo American . U.S. stock futures rose around 1.2 percent, pointing to a firmer open on Wall Street later.

Emerging stocks <.MSCIEF> added 0.8 percent while U.S. crude oil rose 0.7 percent to $72.46 a barrel. German government bond futures fell 66 ticks.

DOLLAR CANNOT WIN

The low-yielding dollar <.DXY>, which still tends to suffer when investors buy into riskier assets and currencies, lost 0.8 percent against a basket of major currencies.

The weaker outlook for the U.S. economy itself is also weighing on the dollar, with minutes of the Fed's Aug 10 meeting showing the central bank would consider additional easing steps if the outlook weakened "appreciably."