Wall Street was under pressure on Wednesday as a weaker-than-expected private jobs report made investors cautious before Friday's key jobs number.

When the market closed, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 10.59 points, or 0.08 percent, at 13,268.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 was down 3.51 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,402.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 9.41 points, or 0.31 percent, to 3,059.85.

Major indexes opened lower after a report from the private payroll processing company ADP showed the U.S. economy only added private 119,000 jobs in April, well below expectations for 175,000 new jobs and sharply lower than the revised 201,000 jobs added in March.

Investors turned cautious because the ADP report added to fears that hiring has slowed considerably in recent months, as the report is always seen as a preview to the closely watched government employment report due on Friday.

Meanwhile, another report showed new orders for U.S. factory goods dropped 1.5 percent in March, the biggest decline in three years, as demand for transportation equipment and a range of other goods slumped, according to the Commerce Department.

However, stocks cut losses even after the string of weaker-than- expected data and staged a comeback in late trading.

In the previous session, the blue-chip Dow rallied to a fresh four year high after data from the Institute for Supply Management showed the U.S. manufacturing sector was expanding at a faster pace.

Investors will focus on another report from the institute on the service sector in the following session, trying to get a better assessment of the broad economy.

On the earnings front, Visa reported on Wednesday that its profit jumped 30 percent in the first three months of the year compared with the year before, as credit card use rose in the United States and overseas.

Chesapeake Energy, the most actively traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange during the session, tumbled nearly 15 percent one day after it revealed disappointing quarterly results.

In other markets, the U.S. dollar rose against other major currencies in late New York trading amid lower risk appetite, while oil prices fell as the U.S. crude inventories rose steeply last week.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell 94 cents, or 0.89 percent to settle at 105.22 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.