Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE: PJC), a Minneapolis-based investment banking firm, serves the capital needs of a wide array of corporate and governmental entities.

With operations in corporate finance, municipal finance, institutional equity, bond sales, trading and private placements, Piper serves clients throughout the United States and Europe. Recently, the company made a major investment in China, viewing that country as having high levels of capital needs, as well as a growing institutional investor base.

Piper Jaffray has its roots in the commercial paper business, tracing its history back to the 1880s. For much of its 20th century existence, Piper operated as a regional retail distribution securities company.

Following a stressful period as a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), the remaining principals of the former Piper Jaffray unwound the merger and emerged as an independent securities firm without a retail distribution arm.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) kicks off the new earnings seasons when it reports third quarter results on Tuesday. The Pittsburgh-based aluminum producer, which celebrated its 120th anniversary with the launch of its website, is expected to post a profit of 54 cents per share, down 15.6% from the same quarter of last year, on revenue of $7.2 billion, down 2.1%. While Alcoa has tended to fall short of estimates in recent quarters, in the second quarter it did offer a positive surprise of almost 3%. Its long-term earnings per share growth forecast is 14.8%, a little less than the S&P 500, and analysts polled by Thomson Financial on average recommend buying Alcoa, and have for more than 90 days. Shares reached a new 52-week low last week, and are down 48.9% from a year ago.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is also expected to report a slip in earnings this week. Analysts anticipate that the conglomerate will post a third-quarter profit of 45 cents per share, down just 6.3% from a year ago, on revenue of $47.7 billion, which is up 12.1%. GE has tended to eke out small positive surprises in recent quarters, by less than 1% in the second quarter. GE's long-term earnings per share growth forecast is only 11.0%, which is less than the sector average and the S&P 500. The consensus recommendation has recently swung to hold GE, but Warren Buffett has bought in to the tune of $3 billion. GE also reached a new 52-week low last week as the markets tumbled. GE shares are down 48.1% from a year ago.

Usually, at the bottom of my posts I disclose that I own Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock. Over the past couple years, it's been a nice fundamental stock with easy to read technical indicators that have allowed me to add to my retirement account.

But if you're using technicals to get in and out of a stock, you have to pay close attention to what is going on, and my attention was elsewhere during a recent project deadline. Behind my back, the stock dropped from the $170s to the $130s in the space of my busy single month.

My loss could well be your gain. Apple has leapt to a 10.6% market share in notebooks, and Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster expects Apple to show significant year-over-year sales gains with almost 3 million Macs and 11 million iPods. Recent customer surveys of people planning to buy a new computer have 34% interested in a Mac. But the recent general market, as well as fears about Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s Android phone challenging the iPhone, have depressed the price. I've added to my portfolio at this price, as a result.

But don't take my word for it. Finance guru Jim Cramer also agrees that this recent drop in price makes Apple an attractive bargain:

LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK), a manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers, was sold off down $16.65 to $51.65. Piper Jaffray said "We have confirmed that the LDK financial controller recently left the company." LDK October option implied volatility of 133 was above its 12-week average of 69 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Wall Street has wondered for some time how profitable the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone is. First, numbers of analysts pulled the device apart and found out what each component cost. That probably gave a good sense of how much the margin was on the hardware.

But, there has always been a sense the Apple was making a great deal from AT&T (NYSE: T). This was based on the idea the the phone company gave Apple a bit of its service plan revenue in exchange for have an exclusive right to sell the phone in the U.S.

Now that Apple is coming close to closing deals to sell the phone in Europe, information is leaking out about what the consumer electronics company will make for calls placed on the device. According to The New York Post, T-Mobile will have exclusive rights to sell the phone in Germany but will pay "10 percent of the revenue from voice calls and data usage." If the German company is anything like Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), it operations have an operating margin of 15%. So, they are giving up a very great deal indeed.

The paper also writes that Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, in July estimated that Apple collects $3 per month per iPhone subscriber from AT&T for voice calls and data usage, as well as $8 per month for every new subscriber who signs up for AT&T with the device. But, if the T-Mobile deal is as good as its looks for Apple, the estimate of what AT&T gives up may be too low.

The bottom line: If the iPhone is not a huge hit at bringing in net new customers to these cell carriers, then they have made very bad deals.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The environmental services sector, the machinery and capital goods sector and several bank holding companies were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Credit Suisse initiated shares of Allied Waste Industries Inc (NYSE: AW), Republic Services Inc (NYSE: RSG) and Waste Management Inc (NYSE: WMI) with Outperform ratings and a $16 target, $35 target and $45 target, respectively.
• Bernstein initiated the machinery and capital goods sector, initiating shares of Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT) and Illinois Tool Works Inc (NYSE: ITW) with Outperform ratings and a $100 target and $68 target, respectively and Deere & Company (NYSE: DE), Eaton Corporation (NYSE: ETN), Ingersoll-Rand Company Ltd (NYSE: IR) and Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE: PH) with Market Perform ratings.
• Sandler initiated shares of Preferred Bank Los Angeles CA (NASDAQ: PFBC) and UCBH Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: UCBH) with Buy ratings and shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ: CATY) and East West Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: EWBC) with Hold ratings.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Golfsmith International Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: GOLF) was initiated at Wedbush with a Buy rating and $8.75 target, as the firm believes the company is an attractive growth story and buyout candidate.
• Pharmasset Inc (NASDAQ: VRUS) was initiated with a Buy rating and $12 target at Banc of America, as the firm believes Clevudine has the potential to be best in class for the treatment of the hepatitis B virus.
• Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) was initiated with an Outperform rating and $40 target at Piper Jaffray.

What's up with those folks over at Wachovia (NYSE: WB)? It seems like they may have lost hold of the wheel. They've accidentally given up customers account balances to crooks. They have offered refuge to questionable funds. Now, it seems they've been sucked, with seven other banks, into a Federal investigation regarding the rigging of bids for government investment purchases. What has happened to the conservative Wachovia I used to know?

On May 20, Charles Duhigg had in The New York Times an excellent exposé regarding another nasty round of cyber crime. Wachovia was in no way at fault for the release of information leading to the account attacks, but its institution was one of many that apparently surrendered funds to criminals. I had always considered Wachovia to be an iron-clad safe institution. Someone must have missed a turn.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its last earnings report declared that 2007 was going to be an exciting year for the company. It may be exciting in all the wrong ways, however, as legal battles are already shaping up over its next major product and with a continuing investigation into stock options irregularities. It will be both a great year for products, and an interesting year to watch how this company makes it through some upcoming challenges. How Apple starts the year with announcements about its earnings over the holidays could have an important impact on the stock.

In Apple's last meeting in October, Peter Oppenheimer said to expect $6 to $6.2 billion of revenue and $0.70 to $0.73 earnings per share.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) calls for better-than-expected results, somewhere in the vicinity of $0.79 per share and $6.38 billion. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster also expects earnings to come out a few pennies higher, and Munster often seems to read Apple retail better than other analysts.

With analysts betting on above-expected earnings, and such signs as iPods flying off the shelves and high traffic to Apple retail and websites, the money looks to be on Apple to beat earnings. But what's your vote?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

Despite the launch of the new Microsoft Zune for the holiday season, Piper Jaffray is estimating that some 14-15 million iPods are going to roll off the shelves this winter. Gene Munster, the Apple guru over at Piper Jaffray, has taken a look at early October sales data and thinks Apple's iPod sales are trending positive. Very positive.

Even more positive is that the above sales analysis doesn't take into account the very stocking-friendly iPod Shuffle. Under $100, tiny enough to clip onto a belt loop, one can bet a number of those will sell quite nicely.

The digital player market is heating up as the temperatures get lower.

Apple ended the day at $85.61, up $1.56, or 1.86%.

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, two more Hollywood movie studios have been rumored to join The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) in selling feature films via Apple's iTunes Movie Store. Although Munster did not name the studios, he claimed to have met with four of the six major studio executives, two of which planned to ink a download deal with Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

It seems as if they were waiting to see how Disney fared, especially in the area of piracy protection, but also to see if consumers caught on. Disney's recent public projections of to sell over "$50 million" worth of digital movie downloads in its first year partnered with Apple may have paved the way for the prospect of other studios.

These figures are likely to rise over the next couple years, especially with the release of iTV, which will allow consumers to watch these downloaded movies not only on their computers, but the television.

One other concern that is making studios hesitate before inking a deal with Apple is the cannibalizing effect on DVD sales. Isn't that what they said about VHS tape sales when DVDs were rising in popularity?

Yesterday Wall Street, investors and journalists all got excited because Piper Jaffray (PJC) analyst Safa Rashtchy changed his outlook for eBay Inc (Nasdaq: EBAY) to underperform. If he is correct, investors buying the stock in the last few years are sitting on dead money and will be for the next year or so.

I have no idea how eBay will perform with all the noise surrounding it these days, but I do know how Piper Jaffray analysts are doing -- so far they are under performing. Although eBay closed down yesterday, it remains above Safa's valuation, so investors are not jumping on his bandwagon yet.

My prediction is that PJ's analysts are more likely to under perform than eBay!

In January PJ predicted Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) would be $600 per share by the end of the year. Yesterday GOOG closed at $373.73. See: Google after the bell for 8-24-06: Google's pending excess problem as reported by Brian White. Well it's not December 31, 2006 yet, but so far PJ is way under performing because the shares are down, not up, and time is a wasting. Do you envision GOOG advancing more than 50% by the end of the year?

What's really astounding to me is the degree of accountability relative to the pay. Analysts are very well paid no matter how bad their track record. That implies to me that they are being paid for something other than analysis. To be fair, while down now, GOOG has been trading in a broad range over the course of the year.

Through its two earnings reports investors have been exercising some caution even as I have been blasting valuation every time I hear an overzealous prediction. In my post What IS Google worth? I tried to not only to show the difficulty of valuing such a precarious stock and relatively new company, but also indicate where a deep value investor might be willing to buy into the company. As time passes, Google will grow into its current valuation.

PJ has let the $600 target ride all year so I guess it still stands by it. PJ's call on eBay leaves a lot of room for error. Who knows, maybe this "dart" will land near its target? With each passing day the probability of PJ being correct about GOOG diminishes. I think it is more likely that PJ changes its GOOG prediction before the end of the year because I sure don't see investors throwing $600 per share into the pot.

And with eBay, your guess is as good as theirs.

Disclosure: I have never held any position in Google long or short. I owned shares in eBay until January 2006 and have no current position.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for Design and Research of an Architecture & Planning firm.

Apple ended the day at $52.37, up $1.70, an over 3% jump up as the week gets closer to Apple releasing its upcoming earnings report. This is a nice little rebound after Apple slipped into a nine month low. Fears of Apple's missing the back to school iPod season with a new model have been dominant, but Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray is reporting that they are confident Apple will release a version of the iPod that will ship in late September or October. All of this combines to make an attractive price on a stock pushed down by fears about iPod schedules right now.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs makes the MediaGuardian 100 list at #2 for having created the iPod revolution and changing media consumption habits.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]

Apple ended the day at $55, down 40 cents and continuing down in after hours trading. Today saw more worry about Microsoft's iPod rival and more details about what Microsoft's strategy might be with that device.

Nonetheless, things look very strong for Apple. Forbes is pointing out that Windows capable Macs will boost the company. The article looks at a Piper Jaffray survey of PC users and found a good percent of them interested in making their next computer an Apple due to its ability to run Windows. Piper Jaffray estimates that not many consumers are aware of this ability, and that as the word spreads this year it will increase Apple's appeal.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]

Apple finished the day at $55.40, down 37 cents. As the end of summer gets closer and close the rumor mill surrounding Apple products is building to a greater frenzy. It works for Apple, and it doesn't. It gets a lot of attention by people speculating on what is coming up, and it backfires because people often get disappointed when something doesn't appear, even if Apple never promised it. Take for example my coverage of an Apple spreadsheet program.

Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst, takes a close look at all the rumored products Apple has in store for us and grades them. Most likely? Apple's 'Mac-Pro,' a replacement for the PowerMac. I know I'm watching for one of those. With Intel chips the case should be smaller than the giant windfarm that is the current PowerMac, and without all that fancy engineering to cool the hot Motorola G-5 chips, it should be cheaper as well.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]

Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy has upped his target of Google's first-quarter growth from 9 percent to 12 percent as of April 11, 2006. This comes on the heels of a survey stating that 92 percent of search advertisers plan to increase their paid-search ad spending in 2006 - and we all know who benefits from that.

comScore reports that Google has over 60 percent of the search query global market, and it has turned a 60.0 percent lead into a 60.3 percent lead from January to April 2006. This may seem like small potatoes, but every tenth of a percent increase is millions of increased searches - and more eyeballs for those lucrative Google ads that seem to be about just anywhere.