New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading fell to the lowest this year. This is a clear sign that changing profit forecasts are actually making investors hesitant to sell or buy stocks before companies report results for the first quarter of the year.

On Tuesday, around 1.2 billion shares are traded on the NYSE, the lowest since the year started. Over the last four days, an average of only 1.24 billion shared are traded. That was 27 percent lower than 1.69 billion, the daily average this year. The Bloomberg News data reports that the volume on the NYSE had jumped to 1.72 billion shares per day and is expecting to climb to a record.

Analysts have reduced their estimates for Standard and Poor’s 500 Index companies’ weekly profits as the feeling that the economy may be in a recession grows stronger. Now, they forecast a fall of 11.3 percent.

According to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held on March 18, the Federal Reserve said that some policy-makers feared a severe and prolonged economic downturn. The minutes also showed that the Fed found evidence that the worst housing collapse in more than a quarter century has already hit bottom.