Crude oil futures topped a record high of 112 US dollars per barrel Wednesday. The rise came after a weekly US government report showing an unexpected decline in inventories.

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard and Poor's says higher oil prices posed a number of problems for Wall Street, including casting a shadow on the US economy.

"There's three problems for Wall Street. First of all with the higher oil prices you are going to see more pressure on consumers and therefore probability of a deeper recession. Secondly, it squeezes the profits of a lot of firms that use a lot of energy for transportation or as fuel for themselves like the airlines most obviously, but also car companies. Anybody whose demand depends on the price of oil who is effected by the cost of the higher oil."

The US Energy Information Administration's inventory report, closely watched by the market, showed that crude stocks fell by more than 3 million barrels last week.