Tech-Stock Rout Threatens to Make IPOs an Even Harder Sell (1)

For Wall Street’s investment bankers, a deepening tech-stock selloff is threatening to worsen a painful reality: Investors just aren’t clamoring to get in on the industry’s next big IPO.

The slide in the Nasdaq 100 Index began Wednesday, turning into about a 4% retreat. There were already signs that interest in new stock offerings from tech companies was on the wane, however.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s quarterly survey of hedge funds and long-only clients found that less than 20% said the track records of recent tech IPOs were encouraging enough to make them more likely to buy into new ...