A frigid January for initial public offerings is pointing to a hard winter for fledgling firms seeking to go public.

There were no US IPOs in January, the first month-long drought since September 2011, when the eurozone crisis was in full swing and the debt rating of the US had just been downgraded, according to data provider Dealogic. Investors and analysts attribute the dearth to the global stock-market rout of the first two weeks of the year, which signalled a broad retreat from risk by investors.