Analysts predict more grim news in the months ahead as the current recession deepens.

The Commerce Department says wholesalers, the companies in the supply chain between manufacturers and retailers, reduced their inventories by 1.1 percent in October, the biggest cutback since a similar drop in inventories in November 2001.

The inventory decline was much bigger than the 0.2 per cent decrease economists expected.

Sales at the wholesale level plunged by 4.1 percent in October, the largest decline on record. -- AP