Jeff Horwich: This week, six private companies are going public. That’s the most IPOs since Facebook’s flopped, back in May.

Marketplace’s Queena Kim looks at why the flurry of activity.

Queena Kim: Of the companies going public this week, the headline grabber is Manchester United. The English soccer club hopes to raise $300 million on the New York Stock Exchange. Jim Krapfel is an IPO analyst at Morningstar.

Krapfel: Manchester United is expected to generate a lot of buzz given it’s a very soccer team  globally.

Krapfel says the other companies going public — like the operator of Outback Steakhouse — could be looking to catch some of that glow. Especially since the IPO market is pretty sleepy in August.

Reena Aggarwal is a professor at Georgetown’s business school. She says the timing could be right for these IPOs. Current market conditions have created a small wave of investor confidence. The Dow is trading above 13,000, and the news out of Europe hasn’t been as horrible…

Aggarwal: So whenever windows of opportunity open up you see get firms IPOs done.

Because when the IPO market swings back into action after Labor Day, there’s no telling whether that wave will be cresting or have already crashed.

I’m Queena Kim for Marketplace.