NEW YORK, Jan 2: Oil vaulted to a record $100 a barrel on Wednesday as geopolitical turmoil, tight energy stockpiles in consumer countries, and a weak dollar triggered a flood of speculative buying, dealers said.

Oil’s climb to the psychological triple-digit price sent Wall Street tumbling and darkened an already gloomy economic outlook in the United States, battered by a housing crisis.

“Oil hitting $100 a barrel has sparked some concerns about the consumer and inflation,” said Todd Salamone, vice president of research at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.US crude surged $4.02 to hit $100 a barrel, then eased back to $99.41 by 12:52 EST (1752 GMT).—Reuters