IPOs run into a wall

A lackluster week for initial public offerings is ending on a down note.

Metals USA (MUSA) tumbled as much as 6% from its $21-a-share pricing Thursday night and was down 3.1% at $19.43. The company raised $239.4 million in the offering.

Metals USA is a metals service center and sells processed carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum and other metals and  processes a variety of steel products. It was 93% owned by private-equity firm Apollo Management.

Some IPO analysts said the pricing had been too aggressive.

Meanwhile, computer storage company Nexsan shelved its $55 million IPO today because investor demand was weak. And regenerative-organ replacement company Tengion (TNGN) cut its offering price to $5 from a planned $8-$10 range.

While the IPO market hit some bumps earlier this year because of turbulent stock markets, there have recently been some successful offerings from technology and financial companies.

Nexsan had hoped to raise about $55 million this week.

The Thousand Oaks, Calif., company makes disk-based storage systems that hold digital information such as e-mail, documents and digital video recordings. It provides storage services for midsized businesses and smaller offices of big corporations -- markets that Nexsan said have been underserved by other major computer storage providers.

Tengion, which is developing functional neo-organs using a patient's own cells, raised $30 million by offering 6 million shares at $5.

But the biotech companny, headquartered in East Norriton, Pa., had originally planned to raise $40 million by offering 4.4 million shares at a range of $8-$10.