US STOCKS-Energy leads Wall St higher, but airlines weigh

                                

                                
 * Lennar tops estimates, lifts housing stocks
                                
 * Airline stocks fall on rising oil
                                
 * Indexes up: Dow 0.2, S&P 0.22 pct, Nasdaq 0.18 pct
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US]
 (Updates to afternoon, changes byline)
                                
 By Rodrigo Campos
                                
 NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Energy shares led U.S. stocks
to modest gains on Tuesday as crude prices jumped, but
consumer-related and transportation shares limited the rise.
                                
 Stocks pared gains on stronger-than-expected profits and
outlooks after the first day of quarterly earnings reports.
                                
 U.S. crude futures settled 2 percent higher at $91.11 per
barrel after new production snags added to supply concerns even
as the Trans Alaska Pipeline remained shut, idling 12 percent
of U.S. oil production. For details see [ID:nN11145150].
                                
 Chevron <CVX.N>, up 1.4 percent at $91.70, gave the Dow
industrials the biggest lift.
                                
 "There's a big feeling were going to have $100 barrel oil
pretty quickly," said Shawn Hackett, president at Hackett
Advisors in Boynton Beach, Florida.
                                
 He said that is clearly bullish for the sector, but oil
above $90 a barrel could "take disposable income away from the
economy and could hurt demand."
                                
 Airline shares were hit by the rise in crude, with the NYSE
Arca airline index <.XAL> off 1.5 percent and the Dow Jones
transport average <.DJT> lost 1 percent after hitting its
highest in more than two years on Monday. The S&P retail index
<.RLX> dipped 0.3 percent.
                                
 The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added 23.31 points,
or 0.20 percent, to 11,660.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 <.SPX>
rose 2.76 points, or 0.22 percent, to 1,272.51. The Nasdaq
Composite <.IXIC> gained 4.87 points, or 0.18 percent, to
2,712.67.
                                
 Among companies reporting fourth-quarter results higher
than expected was homebuilder Lennar Corp <LEN.N>, which gained
7.4 percent to $20.30. [ID:nN10283415].
                                
 The PHLX Housing sector index <.HGX> gained 1.5 percent.
                                
 Stocks have rallied in recent weeks on optimism about
profits, but the S&P 500 ended down the past three sessions,
leading some analysts to question the rally's durability.
                                
 "When you see a market going up in the morning and pulling
back later in the day, it's saying there's some distribution
going on, and at some point it may lead to a well overdue
correction," Hackett said.
                                
 Retailers were also hit as women's clothier Talbots Inc
<TLB.N> shares tumbled 18.8 percent to $6.15 after it forecast
a much bigger-than-expected quarterly loss. [ID:nSGE70A0BG].
                                
 Leading declines on the Dow, Verizon Communications Inc
<VZ.N> fell 1.8 percent to $35.27 after Verizon Wireless
announced it will begin selling a version of Apple Inc's
<AAPL.O> iPhone. The news was expected, and Verizon had risen
more than 11 percent in the past six weeks.
                                
   Short-term technical resistance for the benchmark is seen
round 1,280 while the area between 1,265 and 1,260 provides
support.
                                
 Sears Holding Corp <SHLD.O> rose 6.3 percent to $75.02
after the store chain raised its profit outlook above Wall
Street estimates, citing strong sales. [ID:nN0550793].
                                
 Alcoa Inc <AA.N> posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall
Street's expectations, though revenue slightly missed the
analysts' average estimate. The aluminum maker's shares fell
1.2 percent to $16.29. [ID:nN10272473].
                                
 MBIA Inc <MBI.N> rose 13.4 percent to $13.92, a level not
seen since 2008, after a divided New York appeals court handed
the bond insurer a crucial win in the legal battle over its
restructuring plan. [ID:nN11130844].
 (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Alina
Selyukh; Editing by Kenneth Barry)