With a fresh blast of bearish news hitting just before the presidential election, Tuesday's victor will be under rising pressure to put his stamp on US economic policy well before his January 20 inauguration.

On Monday, auto makers reported steep declines in US car and light-truck sales for October, with General Motors Corp. reporting a 45% drop compared with the number of vehicles sold a year ago. Ford Motor was down 30% and even once-mighty Toyota Motor was off by 23%. A senior GM executive said the company's results, when adjusted for population changes, represented "the worst month in the post-World War II era."