* Payrolls data misses expectations, unemployment down
* Energy sector rises with the price of crude
* Dow, S&P off 0.1 pct, Nasdaq off 0.3 pct (Updates to early-morning trading, adds quote)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Friday as investors assessed a mixed U.S. payrolls report that failed to confirm heightened expectations of a healing labor market.
Oil-related shares led gains, with the S&P energy sector up 0.5 percent as crude oil rose 0.5 percent to near $89 per barrel.
"So far to start the year energy has been down, so you are starting to see somewhat of a reversal of that. People feel the selling is overdone," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.
The U.S. economy created 103,000 jobs in December, far below the forecast of 175,000. But overall employment for October and November was revised to show 70,000 more jobs than previously reported, while the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent, the lowest since May 2009.
Economists had revised their expectations higher after Wednesday's surprisingly strong ADP private-sector employment figures, which were triple forecasts.
"Reaction to the payrolls number was muted," Jankovskis said. "After the ADP survey, people were expecting better numbers, but on the other hand you had a tremendous drop in the unemployment rate."
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 7.45 points, or 0.06 percent, to 11,689.86. The Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 1.33 points, or 0.10 percent, to 1,272.52. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 7.36 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,702.53.
The S&P 500 has posted gains for the day on each of the last four payrolls reports, according to a data analysis by New York-based Instinet. Only one of the four gains was more than 1 percent, while the other three were less than 0.65 percent.