Bulls Back Banks: TheStreet Says

Updated from 7:46 a.m. EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors were feeling bullish, particularly about commercial banks, as earnings heat up this week with reports from banking giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) on Wednesday, and Citigroup(C Quote), Goldman Sachs (GS Quote) and Bank of America(BAC Quote) later in the week.

Other big guns scheduled to release earnings this week are Intel(INTC Quote), Johnson & Johnson(JNJ Quote), Google(GOOG Quote) and General Electric(GE Quote).

The change in sentiment is dramatic as the past three weeks have been led by the bears. Perhaps last week's gains of 4% or more in the major averages did wonders for investors' moods. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its highest level since October 2008.

Participants in the TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer were decidedly bullish. At the poll's close at 9:15 a.m. EDT Monday, the bulls had 632, or 58.6%, of the 1,079 votes cast, hoping earnings will come in strong, while the bears had 311, or 28.8%. Neutral took 136 votes, or 12.6%.

In the sectors, commercial banks was predominantly the choice of readers as the most likely to rise, with precious metals coming in second. Ironically, commercials banks and precious metals were in first and second place for the sectors also most likely to decline this week.

Gold had a tremendous run last week, closing at three consecutive all-time highs. At 10:35 a.m. Monday, gold for December delivery was trading at $1,058.40, up $9.80 an ounce.