Bears Win Out in Weekly Poll

The bears trounced the bulls in this week's TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer market poll.

Of those responding to the poll, 297, or 45.6%, said they were bearish heading into the week's trading; 188, or 28.8%, said they were bullish, and a like number -- 166 -- were straddling the fence.

Reflecting this bearish sentiment, precious metals was tabbed as the sector mostly likely to rise in the coming week. For the sectors that could drop, homebuilding was cited as the most likely to do so.

On Wall Street today, a new round of proposed private-equity buyouts and corporate mergers had stocks rallying.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was advancing 105 points, or 0.9%, to 12,215, and the S&P 500 was up 13 points, or 1%, at 1400. The Nasdaq Composite was ahead by 20 points, or 0.8%, at 2392.

Stocks were propelled higher by a number of big deals that are either confirmed or believed to be in the works. The largest would combine Barclays and ABN Amro (ABN Quote), two European banking giants.

Together, the unified firm would have a market cap of roughly $130 billion, if a merger is in fact announced in the coming days. ABN Amro was rising 9.8% at $39.78.

Elsewhere, Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group could enter as a rival bidding group for TXU(TXU Quote), the utility which is already set to go private in the biggest LBO ever. Currently, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific are planning to buy TXU. Recently, TXU was higher by 1.6% at $63.72.

Date	Bullish	Bearish	Neutral	Week Ending S&P % Change	Bullish Sector	Bearish Sector
Mar. 19	188 (29%)	297 (46%)	166 (26%)		Precious Metals	Homebuilding
Mar. 12	421 (38%)	339 (31%)	341 (31%)	- 1.1%	Investment Bankers and Brokers	Homebuilding
Mar. 5	694 (27%)	1133 (43%)	776 (30%)	+ 1.1%	Precious Metals	Homebuilding
Feb. 26	577 (39%)	451 (30%)	463 (31%)	- 4.4%	Precious Metals	Homebuilding

Sector	Total Votes	Percentage
Aerospace and Defense	21	3%
Airlines	13	2%
Automobiles	3	1%
Beverages and Food Products	38	6%
Biotechnology	26	4%
Commercial Banks	35	5%
Computers and Peripherals	11	2%
Consumer Nondurables	27	4%
Energy Equipment & Services	53	8%
HMOs and Hospitals	10	2%
Homebuilding	18	3%
Insurance	2	0%
Integrated Oil	55	8%
Internet, Software Services	8	1%
Investment Bankers and Brokers	54	8%
Media	5	1%
Multiline Retail	6	1%
Pharmaceuticals	20	3%
Precious Metals	121	19%
Semis, Semi Equipment	24	4%
Telecom Equipment	11	2%
Tobacco and Alcohol	42	6%
Utilities	34	5%
Wireless Communications	13	2%
Source: RealMoney.com

Sector	Total Votes	Percentage
Aerospace and Defense	4	1%
Airlines	28	4%
Automobiles	19	3%
Beverages and Food Products	6	1%
Biotechnology	8	1%
Commercial Banks	78	12%
Computers and Peripherals	15	2%
Consumer Nondurables	14	2%
Energy Equipment & Services	18	3%
HMOs and Hospitals	3	1%
Homebuilding	194	30%
Insurance	8	1%
Integrated Oil	35	5%
Internet, Software Services	16	3%
Investment Bankers and Brokers	44	7%
Media	8	1%
Multiline Retail	19	3%
Pharmaceuticals	27	4%
Precious Metals	30	5%
Semis, Semi Equipment	32	5%
Telecom Equipment	11	2%
Tobacco and Alcohol	7	1%
Utilities	15	2%
Wireless Communications	8	1%
Source: RealMoney.com