Trader Talk

Put in a Box: Hotly awaited IPO may be victim of market chill

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
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As expected, there are reports Box may delay its initial public offering (IPO), although the company has not made an official announcement.

This comes as little surprise. Box never set terms for an offering and never did a road show, so there is technically no "delay." In a very public announcement, however, the company said it was going public over 21 days ago—normally a road show would have at least been announced by now.

Choppy markets and the generally poor returns on tech IPOs are the main issue for Box. Still, it doesn't help that the company is burning through lots of cash.

Elsewhere

Thinking inside the 'Box'
VIDEO1:5801:58
Thinking inside the 'Box'

1) For stocks, momentum is on the upside. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is at a new high despite lousy U.S. growth data and earnings that are somewhat better than expected, yet still weak overall.

The nonfarm payroll numbers received much discussion overnight, with bulls emphasizing the Federal Reserve's statement that economic activity had picked up in recent months. Apparently, the Fed seems to believe that most of the underlying weakness in the past few months is almost entirely due to the weather. Bulls also pointed to lines like "sufficient underlying strength in the broader economy."

This morning, personal income and spending for March were both stronger than expected. The savings rate was 3.8 percent, however, the lowest since January of 2013, so if you don't see a pickup in income spending will definitely slow.

That dovetails with the poor gross domestic product (GDP) report for Q1, which did show a pickup in personal spending despite a lousy 0.1 percent rise in overall GDP.

Separately, the 1st of May is a light one for global markets. Most Asian and European markets closed for the May Day Holiday. Japan ends up 1.2 percent.

2) MasterCard earnings and revenues checked in above expectations. Transactions were up 14 percent— a solid number—and purchase volume growth was generally strong as well:

MasterCard (Purchase Volume Growth)

U.S. up 8.8 percent above

Europe up 11.0 percent below

Asia/Pacific up 18.6 percent below

L.America up 21.7 percent above

Source: Nomura

--By CNBC's Bob Pisani