Holidays and a viral bear cup drive strong quarterly sales at Starbucks

Starbucks reported strong fiscal first quarter as holiday drinks and a viral bear cup helped drive sales.

Same-store sales – or sales at locations open at least a year – rose 4% for the October-December period. That was higher than the 2.3% that Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

There was a 3% increase in transactions and a 1% increase in spending per visit. That was the best U.S. performance for the company in two years.

Shares of the Seattle...