Carmakers are getting clobbered

Three of the biggest automakers in Europe are getting hammered in the markets on Friday as investors react to all sorts of bad news in the car industry.

Shares in Daimler, Peugeot, and Volkswagen are all seeing big losses on the day, and just before 11:25 a.m. BST (6:25 a.m. ET) are down 5.9%, 2.9%, and 3.3% respectively.

Daimler is the biggest loser as a combination of very disappointing annual results and the announcement of an investigation into its emissions testing process hit investor confidence.

Daimler - the manufacturer of Mercedes and Smart cars - reported a fall of 31% in its profits last year on Friday, but the company is taking a bigger hit from announcing an internal investigation into its emissions testing processes, at the request of the US Department of Justice. Daimler was first approached by US authorities last week, following on from a lawsuit filed against the firm in February. The investigation will centre around Daimler's testing of diesel engines.

Here's how that's hit the stock this morning:

Peugeot SA, the French company behind Peugeot and Citroen, is also taking a beating, after it announced on Thursday evening that it was the "subject of a visit and a seizure" by French authorities, with emissions tests the subject of the raid. Despite the company saying that it " confirms compliance of its vehicles in pollutant emissions in all countries where it operates. Confident in [its] technologies, PSA group is fully co-operating with the authorities" shares are tumbling today. Here's how that looks:

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Finally, Volkswagen - the manufacturer that started the emissions scandal when it was found to have cheated tests in the autumn of 2015 - has taken a hit on Friday, after it announced plans to start what is believed to be the biggest buyback of cars in automotive history. VW could buy back as many as 480,000 of its cars in the USA, and investors are understandably perturbed: