Still Bullish After All These Weeks

There's no letup in the bullishness expressed in our TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer survey.

For the 14th week running now, poll participants expect the market to rise. Of the 1,200 folks who took the survey, 767, or 64%, expect the market to move higher this week. Neutral was the sentiment of 240, or 20%, with bearishness coming in at only 193 votes, or 16%.

There also was a peculiar result in the sector outlook. Integrated oil was tapped as both most likely to rise and most likely to fall this week.

Those bearish on energy presumably are expecting the price of crude oil to continue to drop. And the oil bulls probably expect a bottom soon.

So far on Tuesday, the bears are right, because crude oil was recently down $2.24 a barrel to $50.75.

The stock market was trading modestly lower on Tuesday, as we enter the core of earnings season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a bit more than 5 points, the Nasdaq Composite was down 8 points, and the S&P 500 was down a point and change.

Wall Street is coming off a week in which the Dow rose 158 points, or 1.3%, and the S&P 500 added 21 points, or 1.5%. The Nasdaq jumped 69 points, or 2.8%. On Friday, the Dow closed at 12,556.08, its 24th record finish since October.

The tech sector will remain in focus after the market closes, when chipmaker and Dow component Intel(INTC Quote) posts its quarterly results.

According to Thomson First Call, analysts expect the chip giant to post fourth-quarter earnings of 25 cents a share, down from 40 cents a year ago, on revenue of $9.45 billion. Intel's own projections called for revenue of $9.1 billion to $9.7 billion.

This trading week is only four days, as the market was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Below are the complete poll results.

Date	Bullish	Bearish	Neutral	Week Ending S&P % Change	Bullish Sector	Bearish Sector
Jan. 16	767 (64%)	193 (16%)	240 (20%)		Integrated Oil	Integrated Oil
Jan. 8	953 (46%)	549 (26%)	569 (27%)	+ 1.5%	Biotechnology	Integrated Oil
Jan. 3	543 (54%)	186 (18%)	276 (27%)	+ 0.6%	Precious Metals	Homebuilding
Dec. 26	194 (37%)	179 (34%)	156 (29%)	+ 0.5%	Precious Metals	Homebuilding

Sector	Total Votes	Percentage
Aerospace and Defense	42	3%
Airlines	43	4%
Automobiles	12	1%
Beverages and Food Products	15	1%
Biotechnology	83	7%
Commercial Banks	49	4%
Computers and Peripherals	102	8%
Consumer Nondurables	14	1%
Energy Equipment & Services	97	8%
HMOs and Hospitals	16	1%
Homebuilding	19	2%
Insurance	11	1%
Integrated Oil	146	12%
Internet, Software Services	104	9%
Investment Bankers and Brokers	100	8%
Media	10	1%
Multiline Retail	12	1%
Pharmaceuticals	37	3%
Precious Metals	64	5%
Semis, Semi Equipment	66	5%
Telecom Equipment	60	5%
Tobacco and Alcohol	24	2%
Utilities	32	3%
Wireless Communications	39	3%
Source: RealMoney.com

Sector	Total Votes	Percentage
Aerospace and Defense	23	2%
Airlines	74	6%
Automobiles	69	6%
Beverages and Food Products	21	2%
Biotechnology	18	2%
Commercial Banks	57	5%
Computers and Peripherals	26	2%
Consumer Nondurables	11	1%
Energy Equipment & Services	104	9%
HMOs and Hospitals	17	1%
Homebuilding	144	12%
Insurance	13	1%
Integrated Oil	204	17%
Internet, Software Services	21	2%
Investment Bankers and Brokers	18	2%
Media	16	1%
Multiline Retail	38	3%
Pharmaceuticals	35	3%
Precious Metals	92	8%
Semis, Semi Equipment	71	6%
Telecom Equipment	24	2%
Tobacco and Alcohol	24	2%
Utilities	44	4%
Wireless Communications	29	2%
Source: RealMoney.com