US STOCKS-Wall St flat as financials offset weak data

                                
 * Financial shares bounce, including Lehman
                                
 * Bank may have buyers for real estate holdings
                                
 * Nokia's warns on outlook for mobile phones
                                
 * Dow flat, S&P 500 off 0.2 pct, Nasdaq down 0.3 pct
 (Updates to early afternoon)
                                
 By Ellis Mnyandu
                                
 NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little
changed in volatile trade on Friday as a bounce in financial
shares offset concerns about the economy after a bleak labor
market report.
                                
 Among financial shares that rebounded was Lehman Brothers
<LEH.N>, which rose more than 5 percent to $15.97. Blackstone
Group LP <BX.N> and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co [KKR.UL] are
each looking to buy parts of Lehman's real estate and asset
management units, sources familiar with the situation told
Reuters. For details, see [ID:nL5108539]
                                
 Lehman's real estate unit could be worth about $5 billion.
                                
 The day started with a negative tone after government data
showed the unemployment rate soared to 6.1 percent last month
-- nearly a five-year high -- from 5.7 percent in July.
                                
 But by midday the market cut its losses as the beaten-down
financial sector headed higher, benefiting from money being
pulled out of the energy and technology sectors.
                                
  The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 8.87 points,
or 0.08 percent, to 11,179.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> declined 2.87 points, or 0.23 percent, to 1,233.96. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 6.99 points, or 0.31
percent, to 2,252.05.
                                
 JPMorgan Chase <JPM.N>, the No. 3 U.S. bank, was the top
boost to the S&P 500, rising 3.4 percent to $39.19.
                                
 The S&P financial index climbed 1.6 percent.
                                
 Even so, caution about the economy's outlook persisted and
kept technology and energy shares on the defensive.
                                
 "There's been a strong contingent of economists who have
been feeling that the economy was going to avoid a recession,"
said Sasha Kostadinov, portfolio manager and research analyst
at Shaker Investments in Cleveland, Ohio.
                                
 "I think now those people who have been holding out are
throwing their beliefs out the window. We've got a soft
economy, credit is tight and the consumer is really
struggling."
                                
 A warning from Nokia that it expects to lose market share
hit other technology bellwethers, including Qualcomm <QCOM.O>,
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion <RIM.TO><RIMM.O> and Apple
<AAPL.O>.
                                
 Energy shares were another drag, with Exxon Mobil <XOM.N>,
down nearly 1 percent, as investors feared that the specter of
slowing growth in the United States and abroad would result in
less demand for energy.
 (Editing by Kenneth Barry)