Tesla Motors (TSLA) has rallied 16%, following an upgrade to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. April 29 and 30 calls are active. April call option implied volatility is at 61, June is at 63; above its 26-week average of 52 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) April 50 calls are active on 4,800 contracts with option implied volatility at 37; its 26-week average of 31 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement into Q4 results expected to be released on April 6.

Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Analyst Upgrades

• Bristol-Myers (BMY) to hold from underperform at Jefferies.
• Pep Boys (PBY) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Tesla Motors (TSLA) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Emerson (EMR) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• ARM Holdings (ARMH) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• NetLogic (NETL) and Cavium Networks (CAVM) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Aimco (AIV) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Ceragon Networks (CRNT) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.

Tesla Motors (TSLA - option chain) shares are rising today after the company reported earnings last night, posting a fiscal-Q4 loss of $51.36 million, or 54 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, TSLA lost 47 cents per share on revenue of $36.3 million. Analysts had forecast a loss of 50 cents per share on revenue of $34.3 million. Investors are getting excited for this stock because TSLA also said it has received 3,700 orders for its "reasonably-priced" Model S passenger sedan, which will begin delivery in 2012. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on TSLA.

TSLA opened this morning at $23.10. So far today the stock has hit a low of $23.07 and a high of $24.40. As of 11:55, TSLA is trading at $23.89 up $1.05 (4.6%). The chart for TSLA looks neutral.

Heavy snow and blizzard conditions in the northeast made it difficult, if not impossible, for many workers to get to work on the first day following the Christmas holidays. New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport is closed until at least 6 p.m. today, and train service has been disrupted throughout the northeastern corridor.

The storm also put a damper on shoppers who would normally head out today to hunt for bargains, cash in gift cards, or return gifts. Airlines also took a hit, as they have allowed passengers to delay travel for several days without the usual change fees. Coupled with the 25-basis point hike in China's lending and borrowing rates, the stock market opened on a weak note, with the DJIA down about 46 points before gaining half of that back by noon.

Here are the numbers for late afternoon trading today:

Dow Jones 11,555.03 -18.46 (-0.16%)
S&P 500 1,257.54 +0.77 (0.06%)
Nasdaq 2,667.27 +0.69 (0.03%)

All three major indices opened down slightly this morning, but moved up following reports on unemployment, consumer spending, and durable goods orders. None of these was especially sunny, but all more or less met expectations. Excluding declining airplane orders, non-defense capital goods orders rose 2.6%.

Unemployment claims fell by 3,000, and consumer spending in November rose 0.4% and wages gained 0.3%. Volume is low as traders skedaddle early for the long holiday weekend. On the currency markets, the EUR fell to $1.3064 earlier, but recovered somewhat to above $1.31. The Australian dollar has again broken through parity with the US dollar for the first time in six weeks.

Analyst Upgrades

• inContact (SAAS) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.

Analyst Downgrades

• Ericsson (ERIC) to neutral from buy at Goldman.
• Hovnanian (HOV) to underperform from buy at BofA/Merrill.
• PrivateBancorp (PVTB) to market perform from outperform at BMO Capital.
• Logitech (LOGI) to neutral from outperform at Exane BNP Paribas.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) and Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) announced a new agreement today to develop an electric version of Toyota's RAV4 sports utility vehicle (SUV). The joint statement sheds a little light on a memorandum of understanding signed by the two automakers last week, which did not specify exactly what kind of cars Tesla and Toyota would be collaborating on.

According to a joint statement, Tesla and Toyota are looking to launch the electric RAV4 in the U.S. market by 2012. The eco-friendlier vehicle will combine the existing RAV4 model with an electric powertrain provided by Tesla. The first prototype has already been built, and testing is underway.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) went public on Tuesday. It was priced Monday night (all IPOs are priced the night before, then open for trading the next day) at $17. It started trading at $19. At one point it changed hands at $27.85, but ended the week at $19.20. Did you buy any of it? Are you thinking about buying it? Consider this.

The company is not profitable, hasn't made a profit since it was a spark in Elon Musk's brain. It has a super electric go cart, I mean sports car, that is very fun to drive and costs over $100,000. It's a halo car. But the company doesn't sell enough to make money. It only draws attention. And it's done that well.

The long awaited Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Tesla Motors (TSLA) stock hit the market at $17.00 a share and it is up in a down market, trading between $18 and $19 throughout Tuesday morning.

I say stay away. First and foremost, investors should take note of the fact that most IPO's end up as losing propositions. In the case of Tesla, which lost over $55.7 million last year and will lose more this year, the bleeding has just begun.

The car manufacturing business is very capital intensive and Tesla only hopes to stem the tide in 2012 when it projects a production run of 20,000 Model S all electric sedans for $50,000 each.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) posted better-than-expected Q3 results, sending shares higher.
• AutoDesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings, sending shares higher.
• Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) had another disappointing quarter as same-store sales declined.
• CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) delayed its Q3 report due to ongoing debt restructuring and a possible bankruptcy.
• Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS) Q2 earnings came in well ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Tesla Motors chairman Elon Musk said at a conference recently that he plans to take the electric car maker public by the end of 2008. Without having had an opportunity to look at the financials -- there hasn't yet been a registration statement or prospectus -- I would say that this is exactly the kind of IPO that investors should avoid.

I know, it's exciting and new. It's technology. It's stuff that could change an entire industry and quite possibly the world. As Musk said, "Thirty years from now the majority of new cars will be pure electric, not hybrid."

Exactly. Just like Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR). And all those internet stocks. And the hundreds of exciting new car makers a hundred years ago that captured the fancy of investors before they ended in bankruptcy.

Tesla Motors is one of the more interesting "emerging alternative energy auto" companies out there. Actually, it has a better story than most. The company's roadster rivals a Ferrari and is sold out for its current production runs in 2008. The company also plans to introduce a four-door sport sedan in 2009 or 2010.

Tesla just got extra funding as well. It completed a $40 million round of bridge financing from Valor Equity Partners and Elon Musk, its chairman. The company had already raised funding in prior rounds, and it has expressed at least some interest in coming public. Since it has VC funding, that choice might not even be entirely up to the founders. My prediction: you'll probably be able trade Tesla Motors stock as a public company within the next twelve months or so. Bridge financing is often the last round of financing before a key event (such as an IPO filing or significant final round of financing).

Investing in electric cars, for better or worse, is not so easy. I have noted here are a couple of current investment plays that traders can use for this, but even these are not exactly the easiest out there. Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) has its new fuel cell car coming to the U.S., but its geographic limitations are going to be severe at first and it will yield nothing significant in terms of percentages of its entire U.S. fleet until after 2010. There is also another tiny OTC-company called Zap! (OTCBB: ZAAP) but as with all OTC stocks you have to be extra diligent in investigating the company. Zap! has its high performance electric cars coming for some $30,000.