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  • Starbucks’ new drive-thru in Texas is the coffee giant’s first 3D printed store in the US

    There’s a new pour from Starbucks: Its first 3D printed store in the U.S.

    The Seattle-based coffee giant with more than 17,000 locations nationwide has never had a store quite like the one opening this week in the Texas city of Brownsville, along the U.S.-Mexico border, where a computer-controlled robotic arm did much of the work by pouring one layer of concrete atop another.

    The location — which is drive-thru only — is set to open Friday and makes Starbucks one of the nation’s few big retailers that have tinkered with 3D printing for commercial construction. Builders have mostly used the technology in residential construction as they look to innovate to tackle an affordable housing crisis.

    Starbucks isn’t saying whether more stores like it are on the horizon or why the company chose Brownsville, which has about 190,000 residents and at least four other locations in the area. At first glance, the compact rectangular building with the Starbucks logo looks like any other, but a close look reveals ridged walls that resemble stacked tubes.

    Construction experts say the store is an example of an industry figuring out ways to use the technology.

    “It’s early days yet,” said James Rose, director of the Institute for Smart Structures at the University of Tennessee. “I’m happy to see people doing all of these different things with it, and I think at some point we’ll figure out what its best use is. But right now I think you’re going to see lots of experimentation, and I think that’s a good thing.”

    The shop is on a busy thoroughfare where Faviola Maldonado was among those who watched the construction gradually take shape.

    “It was just different,” said Maldonado, who operated a jewelry store next door before recently moving. “It was super high technology.”

    Starbucks confirmed this is its first 3D printed store in the U.S. but declined an interview request.

    Andrew McCoy, associate director of research and innovation at the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech, called the new store “leading edge.”

    In general, construction using 3D technology still costs more than traditional wood framing, McCoy said. But, he said, it helps address a labor shortage and can be a way to get something built faster. He expects it will eventually become more cost competitive.

    “You are starting to see the technology is getting faster, smaller,” McCoy said. ”It’s getting easier to use.”

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  • Tech stocks weigh on Wall Street at the start of a week full of potential swings

    NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are giving back some of their big recent gains Monday, ahead of potential flashpoints later this week that could bring more sharp swings for financial markets.

    The S&P 500 was down 0.8% in afternoon trading and on track to break a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 145 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% lower.

    It’s a lull following historic swings that have been rocking markets for weeks, as hopes rise and fall that President Donald Trump may back down on his trade war. Many investors believe Trump’s tariffs could cause a recession if left unchecked.

    Coming into Monday, the S&P 500 had roughly halved its drop that had taken it nearly 20% below its record set earlier this year. But weakness for some influential tech stocks ahead of their earnings reports later this week weighed on the market.

    Amazon fell 1.6%, Microsoft sank 0.8%, Meta Platforms lost 0.2% and Apple slipped 0.1%. All are on the schedule to report their latest result this week, and they’re some of Wall Street’s most influential companies because they’ve inflated to become some of the biggest in terms of size by far.

    Outside of Big Tech, executives from Caterpillar, Exxon Mobil and McDonald’s may also offer clues this week about how they’re seeing economic conditions play out. Several companies across industries have recently been slashing their estimates for upcoming profit or pulling their forecasts completely because of uncertainty about what will happen with Trump’s tariffs.

    “We heard more plans to mitigate tariff impacts than in prior months and than during 2018” from U.S. companies, including pre-ordering, shifting production and increasing prices for their own products, according to Bank of America strategist Savita Subramanian. But she also said in a report that she’s seeing “some indications of a pause: no hiring/no firing, no new projects/no cancellations etc.”

    A fear is that Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs may be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment because of how quickly conditions can change, seemingly by the hour.

    Domino’s Pizza slipped 0.4% after it reported weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected and the pizza chain’s CEO, Russell Weiner, called the global economic environment “challenging.”

    DoorDash dipped 0.4% after Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, said it heard from DoorDash about a possible cash offer to take over the company.

    So far, economic reports have mostly seemed to show the U.S. economy is still growing, though at a weaker pace. On Wednesday, economists expect a report to say U.S. economic growth slowed to a 0.8% annual rate in the first three months of this year, down from a 2.4% pace at the end of last year.

    But most reports Wall Street has received so far have focused on data from before Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he announced tariffs that could affect imports from countries worldwide. That could raise the stakes for upcoming reports on the U.S. job market, including Friday’s, which will show how many workers employers hired during all of April.

    Economists expect it to show a slowdown in hiring down to 125,000 from 228,000 in March.

    The most jarring economic data recently have come from surveys showing U.S. consumers are getting much more pessimistic about the economy’s future because of tariffs. The Conference Board’s latest reading on consumer confidence will arrive on Tuesday.

    In the bond market, Treasury yields fell some more. They’ve calmed since an unsettling, unusual spurt higher in yields earlier this month rattled both Wall Street and the U.S. government. That rise had suggested investors worldwide may have been losing faith in the U.S. bond market’s reputation as a safe place to park cash.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.22% from 4.29% late Friday.

    In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid modest moves across much of Europe and Asia. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.5%, but stocks slipped 0.2% in Shanghai.

    ___

    AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

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  • Food delivery service Deliveroo surges following $3.6B proposed takeover offer from DoorDash

    Shares of Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, are hitting three-year highs on Monday after it received a $3.6 billion proposed takeover offer from DoorDash.

    Deliveroo announced the bid after markets closed in Europe on Friday. On Monday, the company also said that it was suspending a $133.5 million share buyback it had announced last month.

    Deliveroo said Friday that its board has informed DoorDash that if a firm offer is made at the financial terms provided, it will recommend the bid to its shareholders.

    Deliveroo added that its board has decided to engage in talks with DoorDash about the possible offer and has given the company access to due diligence.

    Deliveroo said DoorDash must decide by May 23 whether it plans to make a firm buyout offer or not.

    The proposed deal comes a few months after technology investment company Prosus agreed to buy food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com for 4.1 billion euros ($4.29 billion). Acquiring Just Eat Takeaway.com will boost Prosus’ food delivery portfolio in Europe, a move that DoorDash is also looking to make.

    DoorDash currently runs its business in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

    Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013, operates in 10 markets worldwide, including the U.K., Italy and France. The company reported its first annual profit last year.

    In January 2024 Delivery Hero sold its minority stake in Deliveroo after holding it for less than three years. The two companies worked together earlier this year, with Delivery Hero buying some of Deliveroo’s Hong Kong assets after the company decided to exit that market.

    Ronald Josey of Citi Investment Research can see a few reasons why DoorDash is interested in Deliveroo.

    “While we continue to believe that DoorDash is more focused on organic expansion, Deliveroo meets several of DoorDash’s merger and acquisition criteria, including expanding geographies and total addressable market whereby it would take DoorDash time to do organically while delivering long-term free cash flow,” he wrote.

    Shares of Deliveroo jumped more than 17% on the London Stock Exchange on Monday.

    0 min

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