Zipcar Inc., the car-sharing company that rents rides for as little as an hour, is expected to get a warm reception from Wall Street for its planned initial public offering this week.

Its supporters think skyrocketing gas prices will make car sharing more popular. They praise Zipcar's technological savvy and its plans for overseas expansion.

Zipcar is "one of the long-awaited hot tickets in the IPO valley," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOscoop.com. Investors are warming up to IPOs again after the market sputtered in 2008 and 2009.

Still, Zipcar has never been profitable since it was founded in 2000. It expects to lose money again in 2011. Cars, its main expense, don't come cheap.

The IPO's value would total about $125 million at the midpoint of its expected price range of $14 to $16 per share. Of that, the company expects proceeds of about $89 million, $46 million of which it plans to use to pay down debt.

Do you remember the dot-com IPOs? Just the term dot-com captured the imagination of investors. Prices of some dot-com IPOs doubled in a matter of hours.

With the current financial crisis, the market for IPOs has slowed down to a trickle. But we still have investing ideas that capture our imagination. Just mention the word term 'cloud' these days, and you are off and running.

Such is the case with cloud computing ServiceSource (SREV), reported in Investors.com The issue was for 1.9 million shares, to be priced at $10 per share.

It's the last week for the IPO market but investors don't want it to end -- at least for Chinese deals. The latest: iSoftStone Holding (ISS). This information technology services company priced its offering at $13, which was at the top of its $11 too $13 range. In Tuesday morning trading, the shares were up 30%.

iSoftStone provides its high-end consulting services to four main industry verticals, which include technology, communications, financial services and energy. No doubt, these are growing categories in China. In all, there are 71 clients.

You're probably already aware that General Motors (GM) has reclaimed a spot on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with the Detroit icon making its Big Board debut on Nov. 18. As of today, options are now available to trade on the bailed-out automaker, and speculators are already rushing to place their bets on GM.

General Motors is about to go public again. Speculation is that the stock will be priced between $26 and $29 a share, depending on demand and how much stock is sold. Is this a good investment for the average investor?

I don't know. I haven't seen the prospectus so I can only tell you what I've read so far. Much of what you would be buying is the future, and well, that's in the future where many things can happen.

The long awaited General Motors initial public offering is coming. According to the Financial Times, GM shares will be priced on Nov. 17 and begin trading the next day.

GM common shares are expected to be priced at between $26 and $29 per share. GM plans to raise between $9.5 billion and $10.6 billion. If demand is strong enough GM will issue more shares.

Toys R Us announced Thursday morning that it will open 600 temporary "express" stores in malls and shopping centers around the country this holiday season, the Associated Press reported. Toys R Us is looking to capitalize on a dearth of toys stores in malls, a predicament caused when KB Toys went out of business in 2008.

"We've been very aggressive during the economic downturn, and this is another aggressive action," said CEO Jerry Storch. "During the holiday season, mall traffic ramps up, and this will allow customers to purchase fill-in toys."

American International Group (AIG - option chain) shares are rising today as rumors swirl about the possibility that the company might spin off or sell some of its more attractive businesses. Reports today indicate that the board may be considering an IPO for AIA, the company's Asian Insurance unit. 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 AIG.

AIG opened this morning at $36.56. So far today the stock has hit a low of $36.03 and a high of $37.95. As of 12:20, AIG is trading at $37.87 up $2.30 (6.4%). The chart for AIG looks neutral and S&P gives AIG a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

Put volume surged on CBOE Holdings (CBOE) Tuesday, with nearly 7,200 of these bearishly oriented options crossing the tape. This flurry of activity represented about seven times the stock's expected daily put volume. Meanwhile, fewer than 1,700 calls were exchanged during the course of Tuesday's trading.

The day's most popular strike, by far, was CBOE's July 30 put. No fewer than 6,443 contracts traded at this strike, with 83% changing hands at the ask price -- indicating they were most likely purchased. Implied volatility rose 7.2 percentage points by the close, and open interest at this strike swelled overnight by 3,175 contracts. In other words, it's a safe bet that new bearish positions were added at the July 30 put on Tuesday.

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.

BP PLC (BP) is recently up $1.03 to $31.70 in pre-open trading. BP debt rating was cut to two levels above junk by Fitch Ratings. BP June 31 straddle is priced at $3.20, October is at $11.50. Overall option implied volatility of 84 is above its 26-week average of 40 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Goldman Sachs (GS) closed at $133.74. GS overall option implied volatility of 43 is above its 26-week average of 40, according to Track Data suggesting slightly larger near term price movement.

CBOE Holdings (CBOE) initial public offering of at least 11.7 million shares were priced at $29.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

On Friday, Toys 'R' Us filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public in the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "TOYS." The IPO could raise as much as $800 million. Toys 'R' Us was purchased by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KFN), Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), for a price of $6.6 billion in 2005. Now, the consortium would like to realize some profit from that transaction.

Since the company was purchased, Toys 'R' Us has pursued a buying spree to improve its market position and enlarge its footprint. The company purchased FAO Schwarz in 2009, and has also bought a smattering of e-commerce websites in efforts to enlarge its market reach. Unfortunately, this strategy has left the company with an extremely unwieldy debt load. Indications are that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of stock shall be used to reduce the company's debt portfolio.

When you think Levi Strauss & Co., the first number that probably pops into your head is "501." After all, that is its signature blue jeans line. But there's a new number dominating talk about Levi's right now: $198. That's how much Levis thinks it can command for a new line of high-end jeans at retailers in the U.S.

Whether Levi Strauss & Co. can rebrand itself as a premium clothing company and cash in on this lucrative segment of the clothing market is a complicated question. But if it does so successfully, will Levis be dressed up for another reinvention -- this time as a publicly traded company via an IPO?

Facebook is putting the brakes on early employee stock sales. The social media company implemented a new policy last Friday, claiming that the prohibition on trading the company's pre-IPO shares is intended to keep employees out of legal trouble, reports Inside Facebook.

This may come as an unfortunate development to employees eager to get a taste of publicly traded riches in advances, as Facebook's shares have been shooting higher in the secondary markets where they can be traded.