U.S. stocks plunged on Wednesday

 U.S. stocks plunged on Wednesday, snapping a four-day winning streak, as weak reports on jobs and the manufacturing sector triggered severe sell-off in the market.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average plunged 279.65 points, or 2.22 percent, to close at 12,290.14.

Financial stocks were among the worst performers of the Dow components, with Bank of America falling more than 4 percent and JP Morgan down nearly 3.5 percent. Meanwhile, on fears of a global slowdown, multinational companies like Caterpillar and Alcoa both slumped more than 4 percent.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500, the most widely accepted barometer of the market, plummeted 30.65 points, or 2.28 percent, to 1,314.55, the biggest one-day decline since last August.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index suffered most, slumping 66.11 points, or 2.33 percent, to close at 2,769.16.

Wednesday's sell-off came after Automatic Data Processing Inc., a payrolls processor said that U.S. private employers added a scant 38,000 jobs in May, far below expectations and also the lowest level since September 2010.

The ADP report got market so much attention because investors looked to it as a leading indicator for the most closely-watched monthly non-farm payrolls which is due out on Friday. The Labor Department is expected to say non-farm payrolls grew by 180,000 and the unemployment rate declined to 8.9 percent from 9.0 percent in April.

Adding to the losses, the expansion in the manufacturing sector slowed more than expected to its lowest level in more than 1-1/2 years, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

Data showed the ISM's manufacturing gauge fell to 53.5 last month from 60.4 in April, marking the third straight decline and the biggest one-month drop since 1984.

Although any reading over 50 indicates expansion other than shrinking, the steep retreat still raised fears that the once strongest sector in the economic recovery was also losing steam.

Besides, mounting concerns over the debt situation in Greece continued to weigh on the market.

Moody's Investors Service announced on Wednesday that it downgraded Greece's local and foreign currency bond ratings to Caa1 from B1 and assigned a negative outlook to the ratings due to higher debt restructuring risks.

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