Bulls Gear Up for Further Gains

Stocks finished last week on a three-day winning streak and <I>TheStreet's</I> latest Bull vs. Bear survey finds investors convinced the gains will continue.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Stocks finished last week on a three-day winning streak and

TheStreet's

latest Bull vs. Bear survey finds investors convinced the gains will continue.

As of 5 a.m. EST Monday, the poll finds survey-takers who were bullish on stocks tallying 350 votes, or 61.5%, of the 569 total votes cast. Bears came in with 123 votes, or 21.6%, while those neutral on stocks this week were at 96 votes, or 16.9%.

Stocks rose Friday despite a

disappointing jobs report

-- the U.S. economy added only 39,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8%. Most economists expect the jobless rate to stay above 9% through 2011.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

ended the week with a gain of 2.6%, the

S&P 500

rose 3% and

Nasdaq

tacked on an increase of 2.2%.

Investors' attention now turns to the debate in Washington to extend so-called Bush tax cuts and comments

Federal Reserve

Chairman Ben Bernanke made on "60 Minutes" Sunday evening in which he signaled the Fed wasn't ruling out further bond purchases.

On Capitol Hill, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday he believes the Bush tax cuts will be extended for all Americans before the end of the year. A deal in Congress could be reached by the end of the week, according to the

Associated Press

.

Bernanke, meanwhile, said the Fed is prepared to buy even more than $600 billion in Treasury bonds over the next eight months if the central bank thinks lower interest rates are needed. He also defended the Fed's bond-purchase plan, saying the economy is still struggling to become "self-sustaining" without government help.

Survey participants expect the precious metals sector to lead gainers this week, followed by the commercial banks sector. Homebuilders are forecast to lead decliners this week.

Luxury homebuilder

Toll Brothers

(TOL) - Get Report

last week posted better-than-expected

fourth-quarter earnings

, but saw a decline in revenue and homebuilding deliveries.

Earnings reports this week are expected from

Dollar General

(DG) - Get Report

,

Pep Boys

(PBY) - Get Report

,

AutoZone

(AZO) - Get Report

,

Costco

(COST) - Get Report

and

National Semiconductor

(NSM)

.

Premarket futures were suggesting U.S. stocks would open lower on Monday.

Asian stocks ended mixed Monday, while European shares at 5 a.m. were falling.

> > Bull or Bear? Vote in Our Poll

The poll closes at 9:15 a.m.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel in New York.

Copyright 2010 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.

Loading ...