Robert Greifeld, the chief executive of Nasdaq OMX, provided a bleak picture for US equity trading after he said he could not point to any data that indicated that a pick-up in sentiment after volumes in the first quarter of this year reached their lowest level since 2007.

Nasdaq OMX reported today that total net cash equity trading revenues were $53m in the first quarter of 2012, down $9m from the first quarter of 2011. The exchange operator said the fall was primarily driven by lower trading volumes in US equities, which fell from an average of 7.94 billion shares per day in the first quarter of last year to 6.83 billion per day in the same period this year. The last time volumes were lower was in the fourth quarter of 2007 when daily volumes were 6.49 billion shares, the firm said.