Oil prices today hit a new record of more than $142 a barrel as investors continued to pile into commodities after stock markets across the globe fell on rising food an fuel fears.

London Brent crude touched a record high of $142.13 while US light crude for August delivery hit $142.26.

The Dow Jones industrial average today opened 24.5 points lower at 11,429.3 after plunging 358.4 points yesterday, on the increasing cost of oil per barrel as well as concerns on surging food prices.

The FTSE 100 staged a small recovery, up 6.5 points to to 5,524.4 in afternoon trading after plunging this morning.

The latest rally in oil prices also followed remarks from Chakib Khelil, the Algerian energy minister and president of Opec, the cartel that produces 40 per cent of the world’s oil, that crude could hit $170 this year.

Alexei Miller, chairman and chief executive of Russian oil giant Gazprom, today reiterated his view that oil prices could hit $250 per barrel in 2009.

At the same time, Libya has threatened to trim oil production.

Oil prices have doubled from around $70 a year ago amid growing demand and weakness in supply following disruptions to production in Nigeria and other countries.

Overnight, Asian market plummeted on the impact of rising oil and concerns about the US economy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended 2 per cent down at 13,544.36 while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng plunged 400.83 points to 22,054.84. In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average closed 358.4 points down at 11,453.4.

The damage was particularly severe in Tokyo, where the Nikkei benchmark slumped to a two-month low as brokers declared an unhappy “re-coupling” with sentiment on Wall Street.

Tokyo’s hammering came as the government unveiled inflation figures for May: a 1.5 percent jump and the biggest non-tax-related surge since 1993.

The sharp rise in prices has caused many Japanese to rein-in their spending. The leap in inflation comes amid what senior government officials told The Times were “extremely troubling” signs of Japan’s fragility as a huge importer of energy and food.

Yesterday, Japan was forced to secure emergency butter shipments as the rocketing price of feed and resulting drop in milk production has left the country’s supermarkets with sudden shortages of a basic foodstuff.

Money Central: the 10 biggest stock market crashes of all time

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