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Get used to it because this is the shape of things to come. That seemed to be the stark message from energy traders in the U.S. as the oil price reached a new high... and consumer confidence a 28 year low. Oil prices edged towards 129 dollars a barrel damaging U.S. stocks and the dollar. SOUNDBITE: Ray Carbone, energy trader, Paramount Options, saying: (English) "We're looking at a finite resource and we're looking at an unlimited demand potential, so I think over time we're going to see a volatile market with substantial pullbacks as we saw yesterday, but those are probably buying opportunities. I agree, we're going up. I think we are going a lot higher than we are now. It's just a question of how quickly, and that's going to be determined by many things including the weather as we go later into this season in the hurricane season." Petrol prices have also surged and many analysts expect prices to rise further as the summer driving season nears. And that's had a knock on effect on consumer spending. SOUNDBITE: Robert Brusca, Chief Economist, Fact and Opinion Economics, saying: (English) "You have a budget, and you used to have a budget where some money went for rent, and some for food, and some for gasoline, and now all of a sudden a larger portion of this budget has got to go for your fuel expenditures, and what it means is you have less money left over to spend on other things. So the non-oil part of the economy gets starved for funds." Consumer spending is the driving force behind the American economy - accounting for around two thirds of domestic product. But with increased spending on fuel, this part of the economy will inevitably become vulnerable - and that means more tough times ahead. The world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said it was ready to pump more oil if needed and has already made a modest output boost to tame the record oil prices. Penny Tweedie, Reuters.