You are getting a Sunday blog because I am going to the dentist tomorrow for a cleaning.

Luckily there is important scary news from a market where it is already Monday, Hong Kong.

Chinese insurance

• China Life Insurance, which dropped its ADR last year, was targeted by Beijing today. Its Chairman is being investigated for graft.

• Repercussions include a fall in another Asian insurer, AIA Group, whose listing is now in Hong Kong. It was tipped recently as a bargain at Seeking Alpha. Now we know why the share dropped.

China competition

• Taiwan Semi (TSM) and Samsung of Japan which produce chips are both doing better than challengers backed by Beijing to rival their business. Business victory is not always a matter of cash payments because it also needs entrepreneurial risk-taking, something Chinese firms have problems with.

Pharma

• Tomorrow the annual JP Morgan pharmaceuticals forum opens for 4 days. Among the presenters are: Galapagos, GLPG-Q; Exelixis, EXEL-Q; Alkermes, ALKS; and Compugen CGEN. The latter fell modestly today in Israel. I am most heavily into Irish Alkermes.

• Antofagasta rose 1.12% on Friday. It now trades only in London as ANTO and pays a near 4% dividend.

• This week the FDA is scheduled to decide on Medicare reimbursements for Biogen Idec's controversial Alzheimer's drug, and also about others. We expect some news also for Eli Lilly (LLY).

• Lupus drug maker Aurinia fell 6% last week. It had risen because of rumors that it was being taken over, but these have not panned out.