Wednesday morning headlines

Selloff continues: Just too much noise about the market being over-bought. Dow briefly hit 9,500 yesterday and then pulled back sharply. It's down slightly in early trading.

Fewer jobs lost: U.S. employers cut 298,000 private sector jobs in August, according to ADP, which is at least better than the 360,000 lost jobs the previous month. The U.S. employment report is due out Friday. (Reuters)

Price wars: Socal supermarkets are going at it again as they try to pull away shoppers from discounters like Wal-Mart and Target. From the LAT:

Vons will announce today that it is lowering the prices of about 5,000 items -- about 15% of the store -- at its 274 stores in the region. Ralphs is also launching what it calls a "significant" reduction in produce prices and other often-purchased goods. Both chains said the simultaneous launch was a coincidence. And both are starting to use yellow signs and price tags to highlight the changes in their stores.

Life after clunkers: Car sales this month are likely to be bad, coming right after the government's cash program, but automakers insist that the future is relatively rosy. August's numbers were good, but not great - both GM and Chrysler saw declines. From the WSJ:

"September will be an aberration," Ken Czubay, vice president of U.S. sales and marketing at Ford Motor Co. said in a conference call. He said Ford is encouraged by positive economic indicators, such as rising home prices and housing starts, and expects that the pace of auto sales in the fourth quarter will be stronger than in the first half.

CA debt sale set: The state will sell as much as $10.5 billion in short-term notes (known as revenue anticipation notes) during the week of Sept. 21. The idea is to generate enough cash to last until tax revenues start coming in later in the fiscal year. From the LAT:

The money raised also would repay a $1.5-billion loan that JPMorgan Chase & Co. made to the state last week. That loan will allow Lockyer to begin redeeming IOUs issued by Controller John Chiang since early July, when the state first began to run short of cash. Lockyer is counting on heavy demand for RANs from individual investors looking for a place to stash savings, given the rock-bottom yields offered on alternative investments such as U.S. Treasury bills and money market funds.

Bette Davis condo for sale: It's on the fourth floor of the 1930 Colonial House in West Hollywood, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. List price for the 2,242-square-foot property: $2.45 million. (LAT)

WGA settles: Preliminary deal to resolve a long-running dispute over the disbursement of foreign-related revenue. If the settlement is approved, the money could start coming in over the next three to five months. From Variety:

At stake in the class-action suit filed by William Richert ("Winter Kills") are millions of dollars in foreign funds due to scribes as compensation for reuse -- such as taxes on video rentals, cable retransmissions and purchases of blank videocassettes and DVDs. Unlike in the U.S., a foreign distributor cannot assume total ownership of the copyrights on an artist's work.

Jim Wiatt to Google?: Peter Kafka at All Things Digital reports that the former head of William Morris has been talking to the company about a consulting gig at YouTube (which Google owns). They've been struggling to get more Hollywood content over to YouTube.