Bulls Make It 10 Straight in Poll

The bulls won their 10th straight TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer poll this week.

Bulls got 61% of the 664 votes cast. The bears got only 17%, while neutral came in at 22%.

In the sectors, integrated oil was tapped as most likely to rise. Homebuilding was seen as most likely to fall.

Stocks were mixed on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 9 points. The Nasdaq was down 12 points and the S&P 500 was down 2 points.

Despite the pullback, buyouts remained the story of the day.

One of the biggest involves casino operator Harrah's(HET Quote), which appears ready to take an offer worth nearly $17 billion. At the same time, Caremark(CMX Quote), which has a deal to merge with CVS(CVS Quote), is facing a $26 billion competing proposal from Express Scripts(ESRX Quote).

Meanwhile, Statoil(STO Quote) and Norsk Hydro(NHY Quote) were gearing up to combine the Norwegian companies' oil and gas operations. Statoil was off 1.4%, while Norsk Hydro was surging nearly 20%.

Last week the Dow added 138 points, or 1.1%, its second straight weekly gain. The S&P 500 was higher by 17 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq collected 20 points, or 0.8%, over the five sessions.

Energy futures were generally lower Monday, as crude oil slipped 56 cents to $62.87 a barrel in Nymex floor trading. Precious metals prices eased, including a $1.10 downtick for gold to $618 an ounce.

Treasuries edged ahead. The 10-year note was adding 1/32 in price to yield 4.59%, and the 30-year bond was up 2/32 and yielding 4.71%.

Earlier, the Commerce Department reported that the third-quarter current account deficit came in at $225.6 billion, up from $217.1 billion in the second quarter.

Below are the complete poll results.

Date	Bullish	Bearish	Neutral	Week Ending S&P % Change	Bullish Sector	Bearish Sector
Dec. 18	405 (61%)	114 (17%)	145 (22%)		Integrated Oil	Homebuilding
Dec. 12	874 (54%)	307 (19%)	438 (27%)	+ 1.2%	Investment Bankers and Brokers	Homebuilding
Dec. 4	1101 (42%)	815 (31%)	717 (27%)	+ 0.9%	Precious Metals	Automobiles
Nov. 27	408 (45%)	253 (28%)	235 (26%)	-0.3%	Precious Metals	Homebuilding

Sector	Total Votes	Percentage
Aerospace and Defense	16	2%
Airlines	21	3%
Automobiles	6	1%
Beverages and Food Products	9	1%
Biotechnology	18	3%
Commercial Banks	47	7%
Computers and Peripherals	23	3%
Consumer Nondurables	13	2%
Energy Equipment & Services	63	9%
HMOs and Hospitals	5	1%
Homebuilding	36	5%
Insurance	9	1%
Integrated Oil	83	12%
Internet, Software Services	42	6%
Investment Bankers and Brokers	56	8%
Media	8	1%
Multiline Retail	42	6%
Pharmaceuticals	19	3%
Precious Metals	39	6%
Semis, Semi Equipment	37	6%
Telecom Equipment	23	3%
Tobacco and Alcohol	13	2%
Utilities	23	3%
Wireless Communications	9	1%
Source: RealMoney.com

Sector	Total Votes	Percentage
Aerospace and Defense	12	2%
Airlines	32	5%
Automobiles	59	9%
Beverages and Food Products	12	2%
Biotechnology	13	2%
Commercial Banks	12	2%
Computers and Peripherals	8	1%
Consumer Nondurables	7	1%
Energy Equipment & Services	22	3%
HMOs and Hospitals	16	2%
Homebuilding	100	15%
Insurance	4	1%
Integrated Oil	60	9%
Internet, Software Services	4	1%
Investment Bankers and Brokers	19	3%
Media	15	2%
Multiline Retail	30	5%
Pharmaceuticals	41	6%
Precious Metals	96	14%
Semis, Semi Equipment	46	7%
Telecom Equipment	10	2%
Tobacco and Alcohol	10	2%
Utilities	19	3%
Wireless Communications	12	2%
Source: RealMoney.com