The course of the South Korean car group Hyundai continued its advance on Monday. The company continued to benefit from reports of a possible partnership with US technology group Apple.

Stock market indicators in the Asian region showed a mixed picture. Investors took a step back after the new year’s intense first week and processed the disappointing jobs report from the United States. President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to provide trillions of additional corona support for the US economy provided some support for stock trading.

In Japan, where authorities found a new variant of the coronavirus in four people who entered the country from Brazil, investors had a long weekend. The mutated virus partially resembles the British and South African variants.

The Kospi in Seoul saw an earlier profit evaporate and recorded a fraction lower in the meantime. The South Korean stock exchange gained almost 10 percent last week. Hyundai climbed 10 percent. The automaker gained nearly 20 percent more value on Friday thanks to reports of a partnership in self-driving electric cars with iPhone maker Apple. Competitor Kia Motors gained 2 percent.

The main index in Shanghai fell 0.7 percent, after new outbreaks of the coronavirus in the Chinese province of Hebei, among others. Figures from the Chinese government also showed that producer prices in the country fell by 0.4 percent in December.

The decline was less than expected, and the price decline’s pace was the lowest since February last year. The industrial sector in China is thus showing sustained recovery from the corona crisis. Consumer prices rose by 0.2 percent the previous month.