Oil prices will likely trade in a tight range this week as investors remain reluctant to take on large bets until the framework of a deal aimed at averting the “fiscal cliff” in the US becomes clearer, according to CNBC’s latest survey of oil market sentiment.

Four out of ten of this week’s survey respondents expect oil prices to gain this week, four said prices will hold at current levels while two said prices may fall.

So far global equities have been a slight negative for the oil prices as well as the broader commodity complex.

US crude futures were 0.7 percent higher last week and held in a trading range between $85 and $90 a barrel for most of November.

“The ‘cliff’ is the big issue,” said Mark Waggoner, President of Excel Futures Inc.

“We’ve seen no substantial headway in Congress yet. Once the ‘cliff’ is removed expect a rally to start.”.

The White House and Congressional Republicans remain at loggerheads over how to design a deficit reduction package, with just a few weeks remaining before $600 billion in scheduled tax increases and spending cuts begin in January.

“We find traders are remaining very cautious about oil, refusing to extend their bets in the current volatile environment,” said Justin Harper, Market Strategist at IG Markets, adding that of the firm’s clients currently trading oil, 69 percent hold long positions, or bullish bets, down sharply from 87 percent in the prior week.

“While economic data may be slightly improving, energy markets are being dictated by ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations. With so much discussion and differing views on the progress being made to divert $600 billion of tax hikes and spending cuts, we are in for a rollercoaster ride as we head to the year end,” he added.

Commodity analysts at ANZ said that US futures data showing a 7 percent build in non commercial short oil positions and non commercial longs liquidating by 4 percent implied “a bearish view on prices.

” They added that improvements in the official Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index over the weekend should “put a floor” under prices, but “ongoing uncertainty in the US will likely generate more sideway moves.

That would be a nightmare for shorts,” said Sean Hyman, a financial analyst who edits The Ultimate Wealth Report newsletter, referring to bets that oil prices will head lower.. “There’s so much Middle East turmoil right now that could ignite into something much larger and oil could spike very easily from here,” he added.. Egypt’s ruling Islamists tried to defuse a political crisis on Monday, with President Mohamed Mursi backing a compromise over his seizure of extended powers last week, while his Muslim Brotherhood called off a planned demonstration, Reuters reported.. “If a political crisis erupts in Egypt, it could destabilize the rest of the region – just as it did in last year’s revolution – and add to upside price risks,” ANZ analysts led by Mark Pervan said in a note on Tuesday.. Separately, Egyptian mediators began talks on Monday with Hamas and Israel to flesh out details of a ceasefire agreed last week that ended eight days of fighting in the Gaza Strip.. “The longer the lull in Gaza, the higher the risk of a more significant fall below $85 and then towards our end of year $80 target,” said Sydney based Compass Global Markets in a report. “However, we maintain our neutral outlook in crude in the short term as there are various factors pulling the crude price in opposite directions.

We believe market participants have become fairly complacent with the range bound trading we’ve seen in most stocks and commodities and are wary there could be a rude awakening soon,” he added.

We anticipate that the market will remain in a trading range until it becomes clearer as to how the heating season will evolve.

In the short term the price of oil will move based on the evolution of the situation in the Middle East and the markets view as to the state of the global economy.

“The sluggish macro outlook sets the ceiling for the range, and the geopolitical risks, mainly from Iran and Syria, set the floor.”.

From a technical perspective, Dhiren Sarin, Chief Technical Strategist for Asia Pacific at Barclays Capital said though ‘neutral’ for the week, any break above the $106 to $112.25 a barrel range in Brent crude “would turn us bullish and alternatively, on dips towards the $106/107 area we would look for basing signs.”.

Some forecasts show China will be the world’s number one movie market by 2020.

The report suggests the media and entertainment industry in the world’s most populous nation is due to grow by 17% a year until 2015.

China is also building 25,000 cinema screens over the next five years, to cope with demand from an increasingly wealthy population.

Growth will also be helped by the government’s recent decision to relax the number of foreign movies allowed to screen each year from 20 to 34.

China relaxed some restrictions on imported films this year, allowing 14 additional foreign 3 D or large format movies and raising the share of profits to overseas studios to 25% from 13%.

“The challenges for media and entertainment companies to penetrate China are still considerable; however, the vast potential of the market makes it impossible to ignore,” said Ernst & Young’s John Nendick.

The Chinese movie market, worth more than $2 billion last year, is seen as increasingly vital for Hollywood filmmakers,” the Tribune reports. “One film industry expert said Chinese movie goers can bump a film’s box office receipts by as much as $50 million.

Disney subsidiary Marvel recently co produced forthcoming superhero sequel Iron Man 3 alongside Chinese company DMG Entertainment, while Looper director Rian Johnson agreed to transplant the plot of his sci fi blockbuster from Paris to Shanghai, in order to gain Chinese funding.

The key is operating within the Chinese studio environment where at least 50% of box office cinemas are vertically integrated with film studios and production companies.

Working in China has its drawbacks, however: Men in Black III, starring Will Smith, had a scene removed from the local cut of the movie after censors objected to the fact that the villains were Chinese.

And even if Apple loses its majority share of the tablet market in 2013, that likely wont have a negative impact on its financial performance; losing the smartphone market share crown, for instance, hasnt stopped iPhone sales from seeing continued positive growth.

Tablets are still very much Apple’s domain with over 50 per cent market share, especially now that the iPad mini has come to market as a cheaper and more compact option.

The latest data comes from ABI Research, who on Tuesday said that although the Cupertino company continues to maintain its lead in the tablet market, its shipment share slipped by 14 percent in the third quarter.

The tablet market grew 49.5% year over year in Q3 2012 and 6.7% over the second quarter of 2012.

That still leaves it with 55 percent of the market, putting it at the top of the tablet heap for the tenth straight quarter.

But early predictions tended to favor 2015 or 2016 as the crossover point at which Android tablets (from a variety of OEMs) would actually overtake iPad sales in terms of broad market share.

If the current trend continues, it won’t be too long before Apple slips into second place behind Android, which currently powers 44 percent of shipped tablets.

No single Android vendor comes close to Apple in volume terms at the moment, but the collective weight of dozens of hardware partners, such as Asus, Samsung and Nook, is helping Google’s Android platform to register a growing presence in tablets.

Google’s Android mobile operating system has dominated smartphones and currently holds 75 per cent of the market share having recently shipped 136 million Android based smartphones in the third quarter of 2012.

That opportunity is not lost on Apple’s competitors in the smaller tablet space, who are aggressively going after the iPad mini.

Very soon, Yahoos market valuation may eclipse HPs as the two follow what in the short term looks like opposite trajectories.

Hewlett-Packard’s stock has been trading at its lowest levels in a decade.

HPs current valuation about $23 billion is less than the amount Apples market value increased by on Monday alone.

Yet, Hewlett-Packard is poised to supplant Yahoo as a wholesale provider of tech schadenfreude, a commodity with seemingly endless demand.

The real competition is for the title of Silicon Valleys reigning basket case.

The latest chapter: An $8.8 billion charge caused by the companys $10.2 billion purchase of Autonomy in 2011.

After a probe, Hewlett-Packard has surmised that it was hoodwinked to the tune of $5 billion by Autonomys accountants, who employed alleged tricks like selling hardware at a loss and then reporting it at full value and booking future revenues from long term contracts in the present, according to AllThingsD.

The Hewlett-Packard WayFor critics, the mistake plays into the narrative of Hewlett-Packard as a fallen giant that failed to adapt to the times and is now being pilfered by crooks.

Compounding the outrage is the fact that Hewlett-Packard virtually invented Silicon Valley.

When Steve Jobs stopped in to Yahoo, he advised prioritization—if you could do only one thing, what would it be.

It started as a maker of audio oscillators and then dabbled in thermometers and calculators, among other businesses, before embracing the semiconductor revolution in the 1960s.

By the 2000s, the company was chasing the market, at one point licensing Apples iPod instead of coming up with its own MP3 player.

When the mobile revolution came along, HPs big idea was to buy Palm, which, like Autonomy, turned out to be a bad move.

The company is best known for its web portal, search engine and for a variety of other services, including Yahoo.

As former employee Paul Graham recalls, in 1998, when Yahoo was the center of the universe, it had already lost its edge.

As long as customers were writing big checks for banner ads, it was hard to take search seriously, Graham recalled in a blog post.

However, Yahoos innovation in that first year was so great it has allowed the company to coast for 18 years.

Both are being commandeered by charismatic blonde female veterans of Silicon Valley entering after a slew of scandals and short term chief executives.

Critics were quick to point out that Whitmans years running eBay did little to equip her to be Chief Executive Officer of a company known for making hardware.

Saddled with a sagging Computer market and no plan for the future, Whitman has made some key decisions in her short tenure including keeping the Computer business, turning the companys mobile webOS into an open source operating system, combining its Computer and printer business and laying off 27,000 workers.

Still, investors have grown frustrated with Whitmans turnaround efforts, which she initially said would take four years.

Whitman so far has focused on cutting jobs and reorganizing the company’s structure while repeatedly telling analysts and investors that it will take several years before the turnaround is complete.

A high profile Google defector greeted as a savior at her new company, Mayer has promised to take a product focused approach at Yahoo and capitalize on mobile and social media.

Yahoo is targeting growth as fast as competitors in online search, display advertising, mobile applications and products such as e mail, Mayer said on her first call with analysts last month.

Mayers first and so far only acquisition, Stamped, a mobile recommendation engine, reflected her philosophy.

Though light on specifics, Mayer has charmed investors, who believe that the company finally has someone at the helm who can capitalize on Yahoos still respectable traffic and market share in search and steer the company in a less tumultuous direction.

Its worth noting that this change in perception among fickle investors has taken place in just a few months, which should give some hope to Hewlett-Packard.

Though we have not heard the last about the misbegotten Autonomy purchase, perhaps there are finally no more shoes to drop.

What if the cliff deadline comes and goes with no resolution, and a market that already has lost more than 5 percent of its value since President Barack Obama was re elected has to face the prospect of an even worse economy ahead.

News of a possible budget deal before the end of the year enabled markets to shake off a credit downgrade that was slapped on France late Monday.

Frances prized AAA rating was yanked, Moodys Investors Service said, over its weaker growth prospects and its exposure to Europes financial crisis.

Investors were further cheered by US housing data which showed sales of previously occupied homes rose in October, helped by a stronger job market and record low mortgage rates.

Japans Nikkei 225 index edged down 0.2 percent at 9,138.15, as investors waited for Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawas comments following the central banks latest policy meeting where it left interest rates unchanged near zero.

Hong Kongs Hang Seng rose 0.8 percent to 21,423.99 and South Koreas Kospi added 0.5 percent to 1,887.25.

Analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said hopes of a US budget deal and the firmer US housing data would underpin stocks despite the French downgrade.

Given unsustainable government spending and Massive Misdiagnosis of the Fiscal Cliff, the worry should be that GDP doesn’t drop.

In regards to government spending, the bigger the waste, the higher the GDP.

The risks involve $600 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases that will take effect unless warring Democrats and Republicans agree to deficit reduction targets.

Markets may be in for some volatility because volumes will likely be light leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US on Thursday.

Big price swings are more likely when there are fewer buyers and sellers in the market.

Investors will also be monitoring this weeks developments in Greeces bailout saga, amid hopes that the countrys euro partners and the International Monetary Fund will finally sign off on the release of €31.5 billion, which is money the country needs to avoid bankruptcy.

Later in the week, leaders will convene to discuss the European Unions budget for the next few years.

Despite Friday’s positive market action, apparently off the ‘optimistic’ public statements by the White House and Congressional leaders regarding fiscal cliff negotiations, the week was still fairly ugly.

Jumped 5.5 percent in Sydney after saying it expects production at a plant in Malaysia to begin in December.

Benchmark oil for December delivery was down 15 cents to $89.13 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

For example, it cites that the New York Stock Exchange’s Retail Liquidity Program (RLP) as an example of an undisplayed trading system for retail orders.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2795 from $1.2807 late Monday in New York.

___Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at @yahoofinance on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook.

US stocks were trading sharply higher Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently gained 159 points to 12747, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index jumped 21 points to 1380 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 48 points to 2901.

Prior to this, Apples stock had been on a two month long decline, which culminated in the stock falling to a six month low on Thursday and the companys market cap falling below $500 billion.

Apple Inc, the largest US stock by market value, was headed toward its eighth straight week of declines on Friday, as the rush to secure profits before a potential hike in capital gains taxes next year has investors dumping the market favorite.

The stock began to slip in late September as investors began to worry about supply constraints after the company reported lower than expected iPhone 5 sales.

The decline has been further exacerbated in recent weeks by several factors, including news of an executive shakeup, a lower than expected profit margin for the December quarter and reports that Apples share of the tablet market has declined significantly not to mention general instability in the stock market from the US election and European debt crisis.

When any stock, not only HTC, rises strongly for days or trades under an unusually high volume, we will analyse and look into what is going on,” Michael Lin, senior executive vice president of Taiwan Stock Exchange, said Tuesday.. Another executive at the stock exchange, who asked not to be named, told The Wall Street Journal the exchange hasn’t received complaints from investors regarding HTC’s rally last week.. Both executives declined to give more details, including when the investigation would be concluded.. In response to the investigation, HTC said: “There is a strict confidentiality requirement in this agreement.

At the end of last week, some were saying there was no bottom in sight for the stock, but this week two analysts expressed renewed confidence in the stock, which appears to have helped turn it around.

Brian White, an analyst with Topeka Capital Markets, wrote in a research note that the sell off of Apple stock has gotten to the point of being insanely insane given the depressed valuation, new blockbuster products for the holiday season, the attractive long term growth opportunities that lie ahead and the Companys ability to distribute significant cash flow to investors.

Scott Craig, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, lowered his price target on Apple to $780 a share from $840 previously, but noted that he remains positive about the stock.

Although we do not expect these uncertainties to alleviate near term, we remain positive on current product cycles and believe the stock offers a very attractive balance of growth and value, Craig said in a research note, via Fortune.

By the end of the third quarter, Android’s market share was 90.1 percent, up from 82.8 percent quarter on quarter while iOS had 4.2 percent and Symbian 2.4 percent, according to Analysys International.

The third quarter saw worldwide sales of mobile phones decline 3.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the new tally released Wednesday by market analysis firm Gartner.

More than 70 percent of mobile phones sold globally run on Googles Android operating system, and as strong Galaxy sales continue, Samsung is pulling away from Apple and Nokia.

However, it may be underrepresented, as Analysys notes that it doesnt include grey market imports.

Since the iPhone 5 is not yet officially available in China, many sellers have resorted to having the device smuggled in from Hong Kong.

Nokias Symbian continued its tragic decline, dropping from 6 percent in the second quarter to 2.4 percent in the third.

Just a few years ago, Nokia had the dominant position in the Chinese mobile market.

The Finnish company should be helped in the fourth quarter by the arrival of new Lumia devices on Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 8, Gartner said.

According to the IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker quarterly report, Google’s mobile operating system accounts for 75 percent of the international smartphone market share.

Specifically, of the 181.1 million smartphones shipped worldwide in the third quarter of 2012, 136 million units, or 75 percent, were Android devices, IDC reported  on Thursday.

The average price for a Symbian smartphone came in at $179 (RMB 1,114) and iOS dropped slightly to $726 (RMB 4,523).

The average Android phone price was 1,393 yuan (US$221) by the end of third quarter, about one third of Apple’s iPhone average price of 4,523 yuan, according to Analysys.

With Android taking over almost the whole market in China, at least according to Analysys estimates, the country is becoming a stronghold for the platform.

Surging sales of handsets made by Samsung, the world’s biggest phone maker, also boosted Android’s market share in China.

However, is unable to properly capitalize on its growing user base there, as many of its services are blocked or constricted.

Baidu, for instance, has built its own software that works on top of Android, while Alibaba is pursuing its own mobile operating system that may or may not be based on Android, depending on who you talk to.

To wit: Android was found on three out of every four smartphones shipped during the third quarter of this year, according to market research firm IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

Estimates from Analysys are worth noting because of their consistency, its interpretation of the Chinese smartphone market is just one of many.

Recent third quarter data from app analytics firm Umeng put Apples smartphone distribution on its platform at 33 percent.

By Ben TraynorBullionVaultLondon Gold market reportSpot market gold prices hovered just below $1738 an ounce Monday morning in London, close to three week highs, while stocks and commodities were broadly flat and the Euro traded near two month lows against the Dollar, as the US and Greece both contemplated upcoming fiscal difficulties.

Silver prices traded around $32.70 an ounce, also near three week highs.

Bullion importers in India, meantime, which sees the celebration of Diwali, slowed their purchases of gold Friday as the Rupee weakened and gold prices rose, newswire Reuters reports.

“Jewelry makers may have to wait before they come back to buy again,” says one physical bullion dealer in Hong Kong.

“Worries about the fiscal cliff continue to drive [international bullion market] sentiment,” says Nick Trevethan, senior metals strategist at ANZ, referring to the combination of tax rises and government spending cuts currently due in the US at the start of January.

President Obama is due to hold talks this week with labor and business leaders to try to build a consensus on avoiding the fiscal cliff.

“That may take some of the steam out of the upside story for gold, but the prospect of negative real interest rates and longer term inflationary risks remain positives for bullion.”.

“The lesson of Europe,” says Congressional Budget Office founding director Alice Rivlin, “is don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to act. Do it now. The other lesson is that austerity is not a good prescription for weak economies.”.

In Europe, the Greek parliament passed its 2013 budget Monday by 167 votes to 128, less than a week after it the Greek government narrowly won a vote in favor of around €13.5 billion of austerity measures.

“Just four days ago, we voted the most sweeping reforms ever in Greece,” said Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras.

Greece may be unable to meet a €5 billion debt repayment that comes due this Friday.

Eurozone finance ministers meet later today to discuss whether Greece should be paid the delayed next installment of its bailout funding, worth €31.5 billion.

The latest report on Greece by the so called troika of lenders – the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund – has been completed, Eurozone finance ministers’ chief Jean Claude Juncker confirmed, although there will be no decision today on whether Greece gets its funding.

“Greece has done what it was asked to do and now is the time for the creditors to make good on their commitments,” said Greek prime minister Samaras.

Greece is hoping to raise funds to cover Friday’s repayment through an auction of Treasury bills tomorrow, the Financial Times reports, although the report adds that Greek banks that would buy the debt can only raise €3.5 billion of collateral to post with the ECB in order to fund their purchases.

Japan’s economy shrank by 0.9% in the third quarter, and 3.5% year on year, according to provisional GDP figures published Sunday.

The Bank of Japan “is committed to continuing with aggressive monetary easing” its governor Masaaki Shirakawa said Monday.

The United States is set to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017, largely thanks to shale production, the International Energy Agency reports.

Elsewhere in the US, the so called speculative net long position of gold futures and options traders on the Comex – measured as the difference between bullish and bearish contracts – fell for the fourth week running in the week to last Tuesday, weekly data published Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.

“[Gold] prices have recently been supported by official sector [central bank] buying,” London Bullion Market Association chairman David Gornall told the LBMA’s annual conference in Hong Kong this morning.

“Will the gap between the amount of gold held in reserve by the developing markets and that of the developed world close?… comparing China to the US, it would seem that in China, gold asset allocation can only go in one direction.”.

“Gold plays a very important role in the formation of the financial market system,” Xie Duo, general director of China’s central bank, told the LBMA conference Monday.

“[There has been] big progress in the Chinese gold market…but there is still a long way to go.”.

The Agricultural Bank of China, one of nine Chinese banks licensed to import gold, has said it plans to start trading precious metals overseas.

“We will start trading globally in the next year or two, most likely in London and New York,” said Wang Xinyou, head of precious metals at AgBank, which currently enables retail investors to buy and sell gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Amazon has confirmed that its country manager in China will be leaving the company at the end of November, putting an end to rumors surrounding his departure, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Summary: Wang Hanhua who has been at Amazon China for seven years will be leaving in November, but he denies rumors he resigned over being sidelined.

A spokesman for the company told the Journal that Wang Hanhua is moving on to something hes more interested in.

Posts to Chinese social media services had suggested that Wang was moving to Apple, but Wang himself had denied the claim.

Steve Frazier, Amazon Chinas Vice President of Retail Operations, will step in to take Wangs role in the interim.

Wang was left with books and music division as well as the “open platform” division which allows third party sellers to sell on Amazon China.

During his seven years with the company, Wang helped buildup Amazons China operations into one of the few successful foreign technology ventures in the country.

The company originally entered the market with the help of Joyo, an ecommerce startup that it acquired, and only recently completed the switch to its Amazon.cn branding.

Though Amazon is still an underdog when compared to Chinese ecommerce leaders, it has made strides in adapting to the local market.

Still missing from Amazons lineup in China, however, is the Kindle store and its accompanying devices.

It revealed last year that it was negotiating with the Chinese government and relevant copyright agencies to enter the market, but the devices have yet to arrive.

Amazon did recently release its Kindle devices in Japan, though, after months of teasing that they were coming soon.

Amazon has confirmed that its country manager in China will be leaving the company at the end of November, putting an end to rumors surrounding his departure, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Summary: Wang Hanhua who has been at Amazon China for seven years will be leaving in November, but he denies rumors he resigned over being sidelined.

A spokesman for the company told the Journal that Wang Hanhua is moving on to something hes more interested in.

Posts to Chinese social media services had suggested that Wang was moving to Apple, but Wang himself had denied the claim.

Steve Frazier, Amazon Chinas Vice President of Retail Operations, will step in to take Wangs role in the interim.

Wang was left with books and music division as well as the “open platform” division which allows third party sellers to sell on Amazon China.

During his seven years with the company, Wang helped buildup Amazons China operations into one of the few successful foreign technology ventures in the country.

The company originally entered the market with the help of Joyo, an ecommerce startup that it acquired, and only recently completed the switch to its Amazon.cn branding.

Though Amazon is still an underdog when compared to Chinese ecommerce leaders, it has made strides in adapting to the local market.

Still missing from Amazons lineup in China, however, is the Kindle store and its accompanying devices.

It revealed last year that it was negotiating with the Chinese government and relevant copyright agencies to enter the market, but the devices have yet to arrive.

Amazon did recently release its Kindle devices in Japan, though, after months of teasing that they were coming soon.