Bulls Dig Oil: TheStreet Says

Update includes final TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer Survey results

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- There's no getting around it: Earnings mattered to investors last week when the Dow Jones Industrial Average danced above and below the 10,000 level and will again this week as companies across a wide swath of sectors and 11 Dow components are expected to post third-quarter results.

Going into this big earnings week, sentiment has swung bullish, according to participants in TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer Survey, with the integrated oil sector seen as the one most likely to rise this week. Oil traded above $79 a barrel Monday, a new high for the year, after rallying last week on the belief that oil demand will increase as the economy recovers. But as it approaches $80 a barrel, some analysts believe a pullback could be in the offing.

Crude oil for December delivery was down 34 cents to $78.68 in recent trading Monday.

Precious metals came in second place as the sector most likely to go higher this week. Gold has cooled off somewhat after rising last week to its highest price ever of $1,070 an ounce. Gold for December delivery Monday was trading up $1.20 to $1,052.70.

Commercial banks were viewed by a wide margin as the sector most likely to fall this week by survey participants. Bank of America(BAC Quote) underwhelmed the market Friday when it reported a third-quarter loss wider than the estimates of analysts on high credit costs and preferred dividend payments. Citigroup(C Quote) earlier in the week managed to post a slight third-quarter profit but lost money on a per-share basis because of one-time items and dividend payouts.

Last week, the Dow finished the week up 1.3% at 9,995.91, the S&P 500 gained 1.5%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.8%.

Kicking things off Monday are BB&T(BBT Quote) and Eaton(ETN Quote) before the opening bell and Apple(AAPL Quote) and Texas Instruments (TXN Quote) after trading closes.

Overall, 346, or 46.3%, of the 748 votes cast in the TheStreet.com RealMoney Barometer were bullish. The bears took 278, or 37.2%, of the votes cast. Neutral took 124, or 16.6%.