Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, will start selling curried chicken and Asian sesame-noodle salads that cost about $6 at its U.S. stores.

Starbucks plans to offer four or five varieties of salads at 4,400 company-owned cafes in 22 U.S. cities, spokeswoman Tricia Moriarty said today. Starbucks has added warm breakfast items such as eggs Florentine and lunches including ham and cheese sandwiches to expand sales beyond coffee, Bloomberg News reported.

If each store sells seven or eight of the new salads a day, it would increase sales at older locations by 1 percent, Sharon Zackfia, an analyst with William Blair & Co., wrote in a note today. The company is working to accelerate sales after two consecutive years of slowing profit growth.

Three rival Washington shipyards have reached an agreement that may end a long political and legal wrangle over a contract for four new state ferries.

Tacoma's Martinac Shipbuilding, Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp. of Seattle and Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Freeland have agreed to submit a single, joint bid on the ferry contract, the three shipyards announced today.

The agreement calls for Todd, the largest of the three shipyards, to be the prime contractor for the four, 144-auto ferries. Martinac and Nichols Brothers will be subcontractors.

The shipyards have fought both in the Legislature and in court to clarify the rules under which the state Department of Transportation awarded the contract.

Todd appeared to have won the contest two years ago, but Martinac appealed the DOT's disqualification of its Tacoma shipyard from the bidding and won before an administrative law judge.

The Legislature, anxious to get the long-delayed ferry project moving, this spring passed legislation giving the three yards 30 days in which to agree on a unified bid.

The state had budgeted $342 million for the four-boat project.

The state added one bank in the first quarter – for a total of 100 – and assets at all state banks rose $3.4 billion to $68.8 billion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said today.

Past-due loans rose slightly from 0.54 percent of total loans to 0.6 percent.

Return on assets rose from 0.97 percent to 1.11 percent, and net interest margin fell from 4.85 percent to 4.47 percent.

The FDIC also reported that single-family home permits fell 9.5 percent in the first quarter, as compared to the first quarter in 2007. This comes after a 32 percent decrease in the 4th quarter. Multi-family building permits were up 123 percent, following a 26.1 percent decrease.

Loans for commercial real estate increased over the fourth quarter, as a percentage of total capital, while residential real estate loans decreased.

Shares of Expedia Inc. rose as much as 9.2 percent after Theflyonthewall.com said Chairman Barry Diller may take the company private. Expedia denied the report, according to Bloomberg News.

Diller is working on a $30-a-share buyout, the Web site said today, citing an unidentified source. He plans to spin off Expedia’s TripAdvisor unit and cut about 400 jobs, Theflyonthewall.com said. Expedia is valued at about $7.7 billion.

The report is “absolutely not true,” said Expedia spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff. “Expedia is not going private, we are not spinning off TripAdvisor and we are not eliminating jobs.”

Andrea Riggs, a spokeswoman for Diller, called Expedia’s denial “correct.”
Shares of Expedia, based in Bellevue, Washington, rose 68 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $25.14 at 1:08 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

Inflation is on its way back. Blame gasoline. And groceries.

An 8.2 percent increase in gas prices led a 5.3 percent increase in the special aggregate index for energy in May in the Tacoma-Bremerton-Seattle area, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Since November 2006, gasoline prices have risen by 35.9 percent.

The household energy index edged up 0.1 percent from April to May, and was 6.4 percent higher than a year ago. Shelter prices decreased 0.5 percent in May, but increased 4.5 percent over the year. Within shelter, the “rent of primary residence” index residence increased 0.9 percent for the month, and rose 6.1 percent over the year.

Grocery prices increased 0.7 percent in May, and compared to a year ago are 6.4 percent higher.

In the West, overall prices rose 0.5 percent for the month, with gasoline prices up 7 percent.

Nationally, overall consumer prices increased 0.6 percent in May. A 10.4 percent increase in the index for motor fuels was partially offset by declines in the indexes for new and used vehicles and for public transportation. Gasoline prices nationwide rose 9.5 percent for the month, and as of May, the price of gasoline was 4.0 percent higher than the peak recorded last July.

Continental Airlines this week said it is deferring delivery of six new Boeing 737 jets until 2010 because demand is slackening in the U.S. for air travel.

Continental will still take delivery of 24 Boeing aircraft in 2009. The Houston-based carrier meanwhile is trying to sell or lease 15 of its older 737s to other airlines to slow its increase in capacity.

Some analysts say the Continental move could be a harbinger of a slowdown in the industry.

Boeing has had two years with 1,000-plus orders, and the company has won 429 orders so far this year, so this small deferral isn't calamitous news.

It may be, however, a indication that the huge upswing in orders for both Airbus and Boeing has peaked and that orders may soften to more normal levels.