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It is another day of sharp losses for the U.S. stock market as global investors fret over $100 oil. The continued pounding in the stock market has brought the S&P 500 to the brink of negative territory for the year. Besides higher oil prices - Wall Street is still concerned problems in the housing market and tighter corporate lending standards could really hurt the economy. Those fears are particularly heightened when it comes to the consumer. The latest Reuters-University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey paints a gloomy picture. Consumer sentiment fell to a 2-year low as the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season gets underway. On the oil front... Crude oil jumped as high as $99.29 a barrel overnight. A weak dollar and supply concerns helped fuel that rally. But bullishness seems to be waning in the U.S. trading day. An unexpected drop in American crude supplies last week and a much bigger-than-expected fall in refined products like home heating oil - not enough to finally propel oil to the $100 mark. Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading in Chicago. SOUNDBITE: Phil Flynn, senior market analyst, Alaron Trading (ENGLISH) saying: "So you have the catch-22 going on right now. The market obviously has a lot of momentum to the upside right now that has driven us closer to $100 a barrel. But this uncertainty about the economic outlook is making us hesitate before we take out that level right away. Could we take it out? Well you know when you are this close - it will just take a small wind to blow us there." Crude oil is trading below $98 in volatile- pre-holiday trade. For Reuters. I'm Conway Gittens. COMPANIES MENTIONED: SYMBOLS: