Wall Street plunges as fiscal cliff, European crisis regain attention (3)

Ratings agency Fitch said that Obama needed to move efficiently to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that is threatening the country's economic recovery.

Also contributing to the losses, technology sectors was under heavy pressure as its heavyweight Apple tumbled nearly 4 percent on Wednesday, pushing it 20.8 percent below its all-time high of 705.07 dollars on Sept. 21.

With the slump, the stock of Apple, the world's most valuable publicly traded company, has been sent to the bear market territory.

In other markets, the U.S. dollar advanced against most of its major counterparts on Wednesday while oil prices tumbled to the lowest level since July.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery lost 4.27 dollars, or 4.81 percent, to settle at 84.44 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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