The Traderszone Network

Asian shares gave up early gains on Friday, while the dollar firmed after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested the central bank is still on track to raise interest rates later this year. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent, on track for a weekly loss of nearly 5 percent. Australian shares also fell 0.4 percent, in a week when markets were roiled by a survey showing China’s factory activity fell to its weakest since 2009.

Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) will name Matthias Mueller, the head of its Porsche sports car brand, as its chief executive, a source close to the matter said on Thursday, as the fallout from the U.S. vehicle emissions test rigging scandal broadened. Mueller, 62, has been widely tipped to succeed Martin Winterkorn, who quit on Wednesday, when the German carmaker’s supervisory board meets on Friday. The crisis deepened on Thursday as officials in Europe and the United States stepped up their investigations.

SYDNEY/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus hit stores on Friday, with dozens of people – and a robot – queueing in Sydney to kick off a global sales cycle that will be scrutinized for signs of how much juice Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) marquee product has left. Analysts expect 12 million to 13 million phones to fly off the shelves in the first weekend, up from more than 10 million last year when the hugely successful iPhone 6’s launch was delayed in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market.

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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen received medical attention on Thursday after coughing, pausing and struggling to finish a speech in which she said the U.S. central bank was on track to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The 69-year-old Fed chief, who had been speaking for nearly an hour before a packed university auditorium here, appeared to lose her place in reading the last few lines of her speech on inflation.

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WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – The confession of cheating that’s embroiled Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE) in one of the biggest scandals in auto industry history came on a cool California morning, on the sidelines of an academic conference focused on green transportation. After more than a year of stonewalling investigators, Volkswagen stunned two senior officials with the U.S. Environmental Protective Agency and California’s environmental watchdog by admitting the automaker hacked its own cars to deceive U.S. regulators about how much their diesel engines pollute.

Oil markets remained subdued in early trading in Asia on Friday after weak data from Japan reinforced concerns over global economic growth. Japan’s core consumer prices fell 0.1 percent in August from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, marking the first year-on-year drop since April 2013. The index includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices.

Shares of Caterpillar tumbled as much as 8 percent to a five-year low, pulling down the sector and knocking as much as 37 points off the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI). Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, the world’s biggest construction and mining equipment maker, has also been hit by a slowdown in industrial activity in China. “The company has shown a lack of revenue growth in the last few years (and) earnings are in a decline,” he said.