Stock market insiders say Samsung Electronics will easily achieve an operating profit of more than two trillion won (US$1.71 billion) and Hynix of more than 600 billion won for the quarter.

"We have seen this in Japan in the 1980's. I certainly hope that China is not going to repeat the mistakes that Japan made 20-30 years ago," said Dong Tao, chief Asia economist of Credit Suisse.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that China's practice of funneling media imports to state-owned companies violates international trade laws. The ruling was a result of complaints filed by a number of US media companies, which contend that China's practices illegally restrict business opportunities.

China Mobile, the world's biggest phone company by subscribers, said Monday its deputy chairman is under investigation for unspecified offenses, adding to a string of scandals at major Chinese state-owned companies.

China streaked ahead of its western and Asian rivals at the weekend by unveiling the world's fastest long-distance passenger train service. The improvement illustrates how China's huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country.

Beijing's top negotiator for Taiwan and his Taiwanese counterpart have signed a series of business accords, and said agreements on free trade and IP rights would be negotiated in talks slated for the first half of 2010. Critics fear that the move will eventually lead to unification with the Chinese mainland.

Hynix Semiconductor has revised upward its capex budget for 2010 to 2.3 trillion won (US$1.95 billion), according to its company filing with the Korea Exchange. In October, it set a goal of more than 1.5 trillion won.

For the first time in 2009, non-Americans were granted more US patents than resident inventors, accounting for 50.7% of new grants, according to recent data from the Patent & Trademark Office.

3D integration investments continue unabated despite the economic downturn, according to analysts from Yole Developpement and TechSearch International.

Falling DDR2 prices in the spot market seems to support why DRAM manufacturers were unable to negotiate any further price increases in the contract segment for the past two contracts. Demand for DDR3 is still strong, and Converge believes it will continue to increase as we head into 2010.

Samsung has agreed to pay Kodak an undisclosed sum to settle a patent dispute over digital-camera technology.

In the US, we've seen chipmakers shut down their fabs one-by-one over the years. How can we reverse that trend? One possible solution: Why not tell the Asian silicon foundries (TSMC, UMC, SMIC, etc.) that they must build fabs in the US?