Starbucks to Double Store Openings (SBUX)

Starbucks Corp.

plans to more than double the rate at which it opens new stores, to an average of more than one a day. The move is another positive sign for an the global economy that has been hesitant to recover quickly. Shares of Starbucks are down 0.5%, or $0.16, to $30.58 early this morning. "Our ability to navigate through the financial crisis and come out much stronger gives us reason to start growing the company again," Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said in an interview in China's Yunnan province today. Schultz said that the company plans to open 500 stores in the fiscal year that began in October, with 400 outside the U.S. China is expected to be Starbucks' biggest growth market in two years, but Schultz remains cautiously optimistic. "One needs to continue to be mindful of the fragile nature of the global economy," he noted. According to a Bloomberg report, "While 39 percent of 1,030 investors in the latest Bloomberg Global Poll said they were "seeing opportunity and taking more risks," 35 percent said they were "still hunkering down." Schultz appears to be in "seeing opportunity." "I think the opportunity that we have in China -- we've underestimated it in terms of the number of stores and the reach that Starbucks is going to have," Schultz said.