Thursday morning headlines

Stocks down a bit: Markets remain tight, with only limited economic and corporate news. Dow is down about 20 points.

Small drop in jobless claims: Weekly filings for unemployment benefits fell only 3,000, to 382,000, which indicates a relatively weak job market. (AP)

Falling oil prices: Trading is down to about $91 a barrel amid concerns about a slowing global economy. (AP) No change, however, in local gas prices, with an average gallon of regular at $4.157, according to the Auto Club.

Still sluggish economy: The state unemployment rate is expected to hover around the current 10.7 percent level through the end of the year, according to the UCLA Anderson Forecast. By 2014, the jobless rate will be about 8.5 percent. From report:

Both tech heavy and lower skilled sectors gained jobs with the only significant job loss being generated in the government sector and the lagging logistics industry. All of this adds up to a California that is on the mend and growing consistent with our forecast for the past year. Although the unemployment rate has stayed persistently high and there exist structural problems, unless there is a further slowing of the U.S. economy, the state's unemployment rate should be converging on the nation's unemployment rate over the next two years.

Angels moving to City of Industry?: Team officials have held preliminary talks about relocating, the Daily News reports. The lease at Angel Stadium in Anaheim is up in 2016.

While officials at Majestic Realty Co. are still working hard to bring a National Football League team to Industry, they are open to building a baseball stadium instead, according to the source. Billionaire developer and Majestic Realty Co. owner Ed Roski Jr. in 2008 announced plans to build a 75,000-seat National Football League stadium on 592 acres of publicly owned land on the east side of the city near Walnut and Diamond Bar. The Industry location is about 19 miles north of Angel Stadium.

More job cuts at B of A: The banking giant is expected to eliminate 16,000 positions by the end of the year, reports the WSJ.

Chief Executive Brian Moynihan is trying to speed the company's transformation into a smaller and more efficient operation as he tries to persuade investors that expenses can be adjusted to compensate for revenue lost to new regulations, an uneven economy and shaky markets. Since becoming CEO in 2010, he has shifted away from a nationwide expansion strategy embraced by his predecessors Hugh L. McColl Jr. and Kenneth D. Lewis, and shed many of the businesses that he considers to be nonessential. Those include several international credit-card units, private-equity holdings, an insurance unit and stakes in overseas banks.

Wrapping up baseball contract: Fox and Turner are expected to retain rights to both regular season and post-season games in a deal running through 2021 and valued at around $7 billion. From the WSJ:

The value of sports rights is continuing to grow because the programming draws the highly sought after young male demographic. Also, live sports broadcasts have remained largely immune from a media world that grows more reliant on digital recording devices and online video services that allow viewers to watch their favorite shows when they want to and skip commercials.

Brown's tax proposal losing ground: Only 51 percent of likely voters support Proposition 30, while 36 percent are opposed, according to the UC Berkeley-Field Poll. The competing Proposition 38 has 41 percent support, with 44 percent opposed. From the SF Chronicle:

Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said the shift of people into the undecided category for both measures - an increase of 5 percentage points for Prop. 30 and 7 percentage points for Prop. 38 - shows voters are beginning to weigh the merits of the competing measures. "I think people are starting to hear campaign claims and they're getting the fact that there are two different things," he said. "If I'm for the schools, which one do I go with? I think that's really what's happening."

Poor people getting hit: Average earnings for the lowest fifth of households fell 12 percent in L.A. County between 2007 and 2012, according to an LAT analysis of Census data. In Riverside County, the decline was 27 percent.

Southwest taking a back seat: The nation's biggest airline (based on passengers) ranks only sixth in overall performance, according Airfarewatchdog.com. The rankings are based on the percentage of canceled flights and the rate that bags are mishandled, among other factors. (USA Today)