With concerns over recession, turmoil in the financial sector, fear of rising rates, high market volatility and a rising aversion to risk, many investors have been avoiding technology stocks.

Investors have feared that these economic headwinds will dampen both consumer spending for technology products and reduced capital expenditures for technology in the corporate sector.

Despite these concerns, some of the newsletter industry's leading advisors are looking beyond the current malaise and seeing longer-term value in some of the tech sector's leading players. They believe that much of the "bad news" is already reflected in the price of the shares, with little recognition being given to their longer-term potential.

For those willing to go against the crowd and buy, as they say, "while blood is running in the street," we offer a six-pack of technology stocks that the some top advisors considers to be among their favorite ideas.

"Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is my favorite stock for gains over the next 12 months," says Chuck Carlson. Here's his bullish assessment from The DRIP Investor newsletter.

"Yes, the market is declining. And, yes, it is often scary to buy during such market periods. Nevertheless, there's an adage that 'the best time to invest was yesterday; the next best time is today'.

"Indeed, countless studies have shown that the best thing any investor can do is invest early and often. That is the best way to maximize the power of time, and time will have the greatest bearing on your investment results.

"Thus, investors need to be willing to buy even when it is difficult to do so, or should I so especially when it is difficult to do so. The reason is that we usually are reluctant to buy stocks during market declines. Yet, if you think about it, declining markets should be precisely the time we buy since stocks are cheaper.

"The stock has demonstrated impressive price performance throughout the market volatility in recent months, rising to its highest level in a year above $50 before pulling back.

"Wall Street has recently been very negative about Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)," notes wireless sector expert Nikhil Hutheesing. In his Forbes Wireless Stock Watch, the advisor explains, "But things may not be as dire as they sounded last month and I think that with expectations down, the company will end up exceeding expectations in the second half of this year."

"One reason Wall Street has been negiative is that TXN's biggest wireless customer, Nokia, announced a fundamental shift, stating it would no longer depend mostly on Texas Instruments for its chips. Ericsson also said it had shifted to a multi-supplier strategy.

"Besides that, in April, at TXN's earnings conference, CEO Rich Templeton talked of a cloudy economy and said that his company had become become more conservative with its outlook for the second quarter.

"Meanwhile, I've spoken with a number of experts in the wireless area who tell me that orders for TI's chips are significantly higher for the second half of this year than they have been in previous years. These orders are even coming from Nokia. (So far, Nokia's muti-supplier strategy has not had an impact on Texas Instruments.)

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite conservative idea for 2008 is Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), which I consider a core holding," says Paul McWilliams, editor of Next Inning.

"INTC is the number one semiconductor company in the world and if we exclude memory products, Intel manufactures more wafers on leading-edge fabrication processes than all the rest of the semiconductor industry combined.

"While its prior CEO was caught sleeping at the wheel, its new CEO, Paul Otellini, has both revitalized Intel's 'healthy sense of paranoia' and usurped the short-term architectural advantages temporarily enjoyed by its only viable competitor, Advanced Micro Devices.

"The net result is that Intel's pro forma operating profit margin has bounced back from a low of 17.7% in early 2006 to nearly 26% last quarter. Between this and the anecdotal evidence we can see in the constant barrage of advertisements we see for PCs, I think the evidence strongly suggests that Intel is again able to sell its processors at a premium when compared to Advanced Micro Devices.

"I use the term 'blowout' very sparingly," says tech expert Paul McWilliams in his Next Inning newsletter, which focuses solely on technology investing. "But even 'blowout' falls short of describing the quarter turned in by Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM)."

Indeed, the advisor notes, "I've likely described something as a 'blowout' less than ten times in the past five years. These 'waterfall' quarters don't happen often. As for Sigma, I didn't see this one coming and it's time to fix it.

"As background, SIGM makes media processor SoC (System on Chip) solutions for STB, BluRay and HD DVD, TV and various consumer devices that benefit from hooking into an IP video network.

"IPTV is an IP video network and, as a result of IPTV, we are putting these sorts of video networks in our homes. Roughly 77% of SIGM's sales last quarter were into IPTV STB applications.

"To give you an idea the magnitude of this recent surprise, SIGM's revenue for Q3 of this year (the October quarter) is closer to the forecasts most analysts had for Q4 next year than it was to what they were forecasting for the quarter just closed.

"The August lows now represent important technical levels defining the U.S. markets' primary uptrend," notes Michael Ashbaugh. The editor of The Marketwatch Technical Indicator explains, "Specifically, the S&P 500's August low holds at 1,427 while the Nasdaq's August low holds at 2,492. In addition, the Dow's August low holds at 13,134.

Ashbaugh continues, "For the Nasdaq and the S&P, a break below those levels would mark a failed test of support, also placing each index under its 200-day moving average. And if the breakdown were decisive, the primary trend would likely turn lower.

Yet "as ugly" as the current backdrop looks, he contends, from a strictly technical standpoint, the primary uptrend still has the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile, he suggests, we continue to find some names that are well positioned technically. These, he says, are intended as radar screen names - sectors or stocks positioned to move near term. In this light, the technician sees ongoing strength among chip-equipment names.

Ashbaugh says, "Each of these names broke out decisively in mid-July. Since then, Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX), ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) and KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) have pulled in, establishing support around the breakout point. Further, he adds, Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VSEA) are the group's strongest names, knifing even higher after the initial breakout, despite a down market."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com features the latest investment ideas and market commentary from the financial newsletter community.