Bears Set Tone for Coming Week

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A trading week that ended to the downside has finally damped the enthusiasm of bulls.

Sentiment this week is bearish -- breaking a two-week run of bullishness -- according to TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer Survey, with the precious metals sector seen as the one most likely to rise.

Gold has, of course, been on a run of historic proportions, and although gold fell as the dollar rebounded Friday, it still managed to finish the month with big gains. On Friday, gold for December delivery gave up $6.70 to $1,040.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fell 1.5 percent this week, but ended the month up 3.1 percent.

Commercial banks are, yet again, viewed, by an overwhelming margin as the sector most likely to fall this week.

The bears outweighed the bulls in TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer, taking 680, or 50.1%, of the 1,357 votes cast. The bulls tallied 480, or 35.4%, of the votes cast. Neutral took 197, or 14.5%.