Orion carries a somewhat high inventory - $516 million - for a company of its size.

The high inventory of vacant commercial space is good and bad news for the regional economy.

But even if high inventories do curtail economic growth, this doesn't mean the stock market will suffer.

The company also used the incentives to reduce its unusually high inventories.

Natural gas prices also rose, although not nearly so sharply because of high inventories, competition, and lower industrial demand.

The higher inventories indicate that companies expect demand for goods to remain strong.

But with inventory high, he expects sales prices to level off or dip in the coming months.

With uncertainty about oil production, he said, those companies may seek higher inventories, driving up demand and therefore price.

The pressure not to keep high inventories, he said, had been particularly great this year with the anticipation of new crude oil supplies from Iraq.

Last year, the stores began to mark down merchandise early because of high inventories.