No swarms of workers pick goods off shelves and pack orders at a CVS Health warehouse off the New Jersey Turnpike near Philadelphia. Instead, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young writes, all the action happens above and behind red and gray walls, where hundreds of robots ferry products to replenish stores across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

The building is the first warehouse in CVS’s network of more than two dozen buildings to rely so heavily on robots. The nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain by number of stores is betting automation can help it get smarter and faster about store replenishment, and better compete in an era of shrinking retail margins and fierce competition.

CVS says its automation experiment is paying off, processing 2 million items a week for delivery to stores, up from 550,000 units before it installed the systems in 2023. It is working to double its use of automation at this warehouse by the end of the year. The company declined to say how much it is investing in the warehouse, which uses technology from AutoStore, Tompkins Robotics and Bastian Solutions, part of Toyota Automated Logistics.

U.S. economic growth picked up in the first quarter as businesses invested heavily in artificial intelligence, rebounding from a fourth quarter dented by a government shutdown, the Journal’s Harriet Torry writes.

The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product rose at a seasonally and inflation adjusted 2% annual rate in the first quarter. Business spending grew strongly in categories tied closely to AI, such as equipment and intellectual-property products. Overall business investment increased at a 10.4% annual rate in the quarter, the strongest growth in nearly three years.

Consumer spending rose at a 1.6% pace, slower than the 1.9% pace in the fourth quarter of last year. Americans shelled out more on services like healthcare, but their spending on goods declined slightly.

• The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of GDP. (WSJ)
• The eurozone economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.6% in the first quarter, and consumer prices expanded a faster-than-expected 3% in April. (WSJ)
• Canada’s economy expanded at an annualized pace of 1.7% in the first quarter, rebounding after a contraction in late 2025. (WSJ)
• Taiwan’s economy expanded 13.69% in the first quarter, its fastest growth in 39 years, driven by demand for AI technology. (WSJ)

A combined Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern would command a projected 39% of the market share of rail freight in the U.S., according to a refiled application for their proposed $71.5 billion merger.

In January, the Surface Transportation Board rejected the railroads’ initial application, saying it was incomplete, and invited the railroads to revise it. Market-share projections and a list of conditions that would cause Union Pacific to walk away were among the items the regulator requested, the WSJ's Esther Fung writes.

The revised application provided a new estimate that the merger will lead to $3.5 billion in savings to shippers, based on a projection that shippers won’t have to use as many trucks. The applicants said the merged railroad will take 2.1 million trucks off the roads.

• Corn growers are estimated to lose nearly $150 an acre this year, according to USDA estimates, and farmers plan to plant 4% more acres with soybeans, which need less fertilizer. (WSJ)
• Chicago wheat futures have gained nearly 30% this year, reaching $6.58 a bushel, driven by increasing drought levels, fertilizer shortages, and the threat of a strong El Niño. (WSJ)
• President Trump said he would remove tariffs on whisky from the U.K. (WSJ)
• XPO's profit rose as the logistics and less-than-truckload freight company’s efficiency compensated for anemic growth in volume by weight. (Dow Jones Newswires)
• Volkswagen said it would intensify its transformation plans, including cutting manufacturing and overhead costs, boosting plant efficiency and speeding tech development. (WSJ)
• Caterpillar notched higher profit and a jump in sales, driven by continued demand for its construction equipment, engines and generators. (WSJ)
• Rivian Automotive plans to increase initial production capacity for a plant it is building in Georgia by 50%. (WSJ)
• Hong Kong’s OOCL ordered a dozen LNG dual-fuel containerships in a $2.2 billion deal with Shanghai’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding. (Journal of Commerce)
• Procurement-related supply-chain disruptions cost companies an average of $16 million a year, according to a report by Coupa and Iniciv. (SupplyChain24/7)
• The U.S. Export-Import Bank’s Project Vault plan to stockpile critical minerals would initially source them from anywhere worldwide, including China. (Bloomberg)
• Toyota Motor plans to build three assembly plants in India. (Nikkei Asia)
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection expects to start issuing tariff refunds as soon as May 11. (SupplyChainDive)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.