US STOCKS-Wall Street headed for second straight weekly gain

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* Disney drops after strong run up to results
* PayPal extends rise as brokerages upbeat after investor
day
* Energy stocks slide as oil prices drop on demand fears
* Indexes: Dow flat, S&P up 0.17%, Nasdaq up 0.16%

(Adds quote, details; updates prices)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Feb 12 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 drifted higher on Friday,
recovering from early weakness as financial and materials stocks
gained ground while investors held out for signs of progress on
the next batch of fiscal aid.
Value stocks .RLV outperformed large-cap growth stocks
.RLG as investors favored names likely to benefit from a
reopened economy.
The main stock indexes had opened lower, weighed down by
heavyweights Apple Inc AAPL.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O and
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O . The major averages are still headed for
their second consecutive weekly gain.
The Lipper data late on Thursday showed U.S.-based stock
funds attracted $22.9 billion in the week to Wednesday, the
largest weekly inflow since March 2008. U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday on account of
the Presidents' day holiday.
"Most of these selloffs have proven just to be some profit
taking only to see the market come back from any near-term
selloff," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments,
a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.
"Low interest rate, stimulus and improvement on the virus
front providing greater confidence for investors to stay in the
market and buy more."
A sharp drop in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in
recent weeks have also driven markets to historic highs.
However, many analysts have cautioned of a near-term pullback
amid risks from new coronavirus variants and potential bumps in
vaccine distribution.
Latest data showed U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly fell
in early February as households remained worried about the
economy despite expectations for additional fiscal stimulus.
A Reuters poll showed the U.S. economy is expected to reach
pre-COVID-19 levels within a year as the proposed $1.9 trillion
fiscal package helps boost economic activity, but it's likely to
take over a year for unemployment to fall to early 2020 levels.
U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with a bipartisan group
of mayors and governors on Friday as he continues to push for
approval of the hefty relief plan. Economy-linked bank stocks .SPXBK jumped about 1.3%, while
energy .SPNY , materials .SPLRCM and industrials .SPLRCI
also advanced between 0.7% and 0.8%.
The small-cap index .RUT was set to rise for the fifth
week out of six full weeks this year.
At 11:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 5.54 points, or 0.02%, to 31,425.16, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 6.81 points, or 0.17%, to 3,923.19 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC rose 22.48 points, or 0.16%, to 14,048.25.
PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O rose about 3.8% as several
brokerages raised price targets on the stock a day after the
payments company's investor day call.
Walt Disney Co DIS.N reported a surprise quarterly profit.
However, its shares fell 1.5% from a record high after a more
than 13% run up to its results over the last two weeks.
Dating app operator Bumble Inc BMBL.O gained 13%, a day
after a stellar debut sent its shares up more than 75%.
Tilray Inc TLRY.O and Aphria Inc APHA.O gained 4% and 6%
after nearly halving in value in the prior session.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.3-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.4-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 47 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 307 new highs and 22 new lows.