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. ...