A quartet of new stocks traded sluggishly in their debuts on Thursday, after bringing the first IPOs since Peloton Interactive Inc. and The We Co. showed waning confidence in startups.

Two of Thursday’s debuts -- Frequency Therapeutics Inc. and MetroCity Bankshares Inc. -- are trading below their IPO prices set overnight. The other two new faces -- Aprea Therapeutics Inc. and Viela Bio Inc. -- rose less than the 15 per cent that’s typically priced into the value of initial public offerings. All that while the Nasdaq Biotech Index is having its best session in three weeks, up 1.3 per cent intraday.

The latest weakness comes several days after WeWork’s parent filed to withdraw its IPO filing, and with Peloton trading 22 per cent below its Sept. 25 IPO price. Before WeWork changed plans and Peloton made one of the decade’s weakest starts by a mega-IPO, 11 consecutive new listings had debuted above their offering price. Political news also weighed on biotech shares as these deals developed.