The Associated Press reported today that Starbucks posted a loss for its third quarter and also lowered its outlook for the year and said it would open fewer new locations.

Here's more from the AP story: But the company kept its profit guidance intact for fiscal 2009, easing investors' fears about the economy's effect on the year ahead.

"I don't think anyone's really focused on the quarter," said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo. "Everyone is thinking of next year."

The company reported a loss of $6.7 million, or 1 cent per share, compared to a profit of $158.3 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier. Starbucks said it earned 16 cents per share once the costs for restructuring and closing stores are excluded.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $2.61 billion.

Just when you've gotten over the shock of checked baggage fees that can approach the price of a ticket, a European discount airline is proposing to eliminate checked baggage entirely on some flights.

Dublin's Ryanair, a pioneering European discount airline that has eliminated seatback pockets and window shades and sold ads on seatback trays to pare costs, is now proposing to make some of its flights carry-on bags only.

Ryanair says it wants to speed up the turnaround of certain flights and cut the handling costs and weight by designating some flights for no checked bags.

The airline says it is targeting flights most frequently used by business travelers for brief trips.

The airline also is likely to become the first discount airline to allow the use of cell phones aboard. The airline will charge travelers for their airborne use, creating another source of revenue to offset high fuel costs.

New figures from the Port of Tacoma show container trade at the Tideflats port is up in June for the third month in a row.

This upward trend in April, May and June has almost erased the downward drift in the first three months of the year. For the first half, container numbers at the port were off just .6 percent or 5,662 20-foot container units.

After a nearly seven percent drop in container volume last year, could this upswing portend a restoration of the port's growth curve?

Port of Tacoma executive director Tim Farrell thinks several factors favor a renewal of that growth:

* Fuel costs. With fuel at record levels, some importers are shifting goods back to West Coast ports and bringing them cross country by train rather than pay the extra fuel costs of bringing containers to the East Coast by ship.

* Container surcharges in California. The nation's largest container ports, Long Beach and Los Angeles along with the State of California are imposing infrastructure improvement, nightshift and pollution surcharges on containers moving through those ports. If all are imposed, they could amount to $250 per 40-foot container. Tacoma doesn't impose those surcharges.

* Anticipation of freshened consumer demand. Farrell calls it the "Slinky effect" after the coiled steel kid's toy. Consumers have cut back for months on purchases because of high fuel prices and sour economic conditions, but ultimately they'll re-enter the marketplace to buy the items that they've postponed purchasing, and that will fuel a surge in demand.

Here's a chart of the new container volume figures through the port in the first half of the year that I've drawn up: