1) One initial public offering (IPO) has been postponed. Diamond Shipping, a deep sea bulk transport company, has reportedly put off its flotation scheduled for today at the NYSE. It's largest shareholder, Wilbur Ross, implied the price was too low.

How low? No one said, but the company was offering 14 million shares at $14 to $16, and IPO traders told me the book was below $10 a share. Ouch. I would not extrapolate much about this for the rest of the IPO market, however. New issues are a sector play: shipping is not a hot sector play.

2) Surprise! Another retailer guides lower (it's a broken record by now). Express reported earnings and revenues below expectations and guided 2014 share price to $1.03-$1.23, well below consensus of $1.58.

Says CEO Michael Weiss: "The start of 2014 has nevertheless been extremely difficult, with traffic down significantly, negative comparable sales and the promotional environment remaining intense." He concludes by saying that "a material uptick in traffic is not necessarily imminent" and that "the promotional environment will continue."

3) There is a little more pressure for the market leaders. Small- and mid-cap stocks are the market leaders this year, but this week they have been notable under performers, particularly yesterday.

The MidCap Index is down 1.4 percent, the small-cap Russelll 2000 down 1.4 percent, while the S&P 500 is down 0.5 percent. For the year, the Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap up 2.0 and 2.3 percent respectively, outperforming the 1.0 percent gain of the S&P 500.

Asia saw a rough session, with the Nikkei ending down 2.6 percent (now down 9 percent for the year); elsewhere, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore were also down more than one percent. Most of Europe also down more than one percent.

—By CNBC's Bob Pisani

