NEW YORK - Wall Street gave up more ground at the start of the third quarter Tuesday, with stocks falling sharply on investors' ongoing concern about the damage rising oil prices will do to the economy. The Dow Jones industrials gave up almost 100 points, while Treasury prices soared as investors again fled to the safety of government debt.

Crude oil held above $142 a barrel in premarket trading after briefly soaring to a record high of $143.67 on Monday amid concerns about tensions in the Middle East and a weakening dollar.

The concern on Wall Street is that higher energy prices will hurt consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy. That has put even more weight on economic data set to be released in coming weeks, including reports on construction and manufacturing due at 10 a.m. EDT.

The Dow fell 93.06, or 0.82 percent, at 11,256.95. The major indexes ended the first half of 2008 with double digit declines.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gave up 10.92, or 0.85 percent, to 1,269.08; and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 20.36, or 0.89 percent, to 2,272.62.

The drop in the U.S. follows a steep decline in European markets. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.66 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 2.24 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 2.63 percent.

Bonds were again the beneficiaries of investors' flight from Wall Street. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.90 percent from 3.98 percent late Monday.