Deutsche Bank's Profit Triples as Investment Banking Rises

And four other things you need to know now.

• Deutsche Bank's (DB) profit more than tripled in the second quarter from a year ago, beating analyst expectations, mainly due to a strong increase in investment banking revenues and lower taxes. Revenue at Deutsche Bank's fixed-income and currency trading operations rose 6% amid stronger foreign exchange activities; equity trading revenue was up 40%.
• Oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A; RDS.B) said it would cut 6,500 jobs worldwide and pledged to cut capital spending by 20% this year due to the fall in oil prices. Around $200 billion in spending by major oil firms has been deferred since the oil price started sliding. Shell's profit on a current cost of supplies basis excluding identified items, a measure preferred by the market, fell by more than 37% to $3.8 billion in the second quarter from a year ago, but managed to beat analysts' expectations.
• Sales of Samsung Electronics' premium Galaxy S6 smartphone fell short of expectations, as the company was unable to meet demand for its curved-screen model in the second quarter. Samsung is a competitor of Action Alerts PLUS charity portfolio holding Apple (AAPL).
• Chinese stocks dropped suddenly in the last hour of trading, closing the session lower and almost wiping out Wednesday's rally. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.2% to 3,705.77 at the close, erasing an earlier gain of 1.5%, with technology companies and drugmakers leading the declines. 
• Finnish telecommunications company Nokia reported an increase in sales and profits that sent its shares up by 8%. Operating profit at the core networks business was up 11% in the second quarter from a year ago. Nokia's chief executive said this was the most profitable quarter since the company completed the sale of its handset division to Microsoft (MSFT) last year in April. 

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