WASHINGTON — The price of oil hit a record high today, spreading to factories, groceries, gas stations, and every citizen’s pocketbook.

Builders are building less, the government reported. Manufacturers are cutting back, another report said. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said they would cut second-quarter production.

The galloping energy prices are doubly painful as the nation teeters on the edge of recession: High energy costs push companies to charge shoppers higher prices, then those consumers and businesses cut back in turn, dumping more cold water on the economy.

“It’s like throwing sands in the wheels of the economy,” an economist at Global Insight, Brian Bethune, said. “Things slow down. There is more friction and there is more complaining.”

Oil prices marched past $103 a barrel today, the latest in a recent string of record-high oil prices, before settling at $102.45.

The steep run-up in oil and other energy prices “hits deeper and deeper into the consumers’ ability to spend. With a lot of households stretched by high food prices as well, it creates real problems,” the president of Naroff Economic Advisors, Joel Naroff, said.

Reports today showed factories feeling the sting of soaring costs for oil as well as other raw materials — pushing production costs higher even as some have to cope with fallout from a sour housing market that has sapped demand for their products.

Manufacturers in February logged their weakest performance in nearly five years, the Institute for Supply Management said. Industries that suffered declines included makers of furniture, textiles, machinery, and chemical products.

Construction spending plunged by 1.7% in January, the biggest decline in 14 years, the government said. Cutbacks covered a wide range, from home building to hotels to highways.

Unsure what to make of it all, Wall Street ended the day narrowly mixed. The Dow Jones industrials dropped 7 points.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline stood at $3.165 today, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. The Energy Department expects gas prices to peak at a record level near $3.40 this spring, and some analysts predict pump prices could rise to nearly $4 a gallon when the busy summer driving season arrives.

It’s not much better in the air. Airplane fares climbed 0.8% in January.

Diesel prices, used to transport the vast majority of the nation’s goods, are also soaring. Diesel prices hit another new record of $3.674 a gallon today.

“Bulky items — milk, soda pop, eggs, cheese, fruits, and vegetables — probably will have higher transportation costs to bring those items to stores,” Mr. Bethune said. “How much of that is passed along to customers depends. In terms of overall costs of products, it might not be huge. It could be a few cents. But overall it will add up.”

Food prices are rising but it’s hard to divine exactly how much of that increase can be traced to higher energy prices. Food prices rose 0.7% in January, reflecting more expensive fruits, vegetables, poultry, pork, and dairy products, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index.

With the overall economy slowing, profit-squeezed businesses are having to make difficult decisions: How high can they raise prices? What costs can they cut, including workers?

Employers did cut jobs in January, marking the first nationwide loss in more than four years. Although new-job creation is thought to have improved somewhat in February, the nation’s unemployment rate is expected to bump up to 5%. The government releases those new figures on Friday. The jobless rate averaged 4.6% last year and could climb to as high as 5.3% this year, according to the Federal Reserve.

High energy prices, the housing bust and a credit crisis are feeding fears that the country is heading into a recession or is in one already.

The economy skidded to a near halt in the final three months of last year, growing at pace of just 0.6%. Many economists think growth in the January-to-March quarter could be even worse — around a 0.4% pace — and an increasing number think the economy is actually shrinking now.