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 more conservative idea for 2008 is MasterCard (NYSE: MA)," says relative strength expert Dan Sullivan in The Chartist. "The card for 'everything else' is the credit card of choice for millions of Americans. MasterCard offers credit payment solutions, processes payment transactions, and also provides consulting services to customers and merchants.

"Despite a sluggish housing market, people are still spending, and for MasterCard, that's great news. The credit giant announced that its third quarter earnings leapt 63%, helped by rising spending volume and the sale of part of its stake in a Brazilian credit and debit card network.

"Third quarter earnings were $314 million, or $2.31 per share, compared with $193 million, or $1.42 a share in the year-ago period. Third quarter results included a $70 million gain from the sale of a stake in Redecard S.A. Revenue rose 20.1% to $1.08 billion.

"MasterCard is owned in the Chartist Aggressive Account and recently broke out into record-high territory. This stock has a highly bullish chart pattern and continues to exhibit tremendous relative strength. We think this stock could be a big winner in 2008."

Jim Collins, editor of OTC Insight, uses a proprietary quantitative system to isolate high growth and momentum stocks trading at reasonable valuations relative to that growth.

His latest two featured stocks based on these criteria are both China-based companies: Internet search provider Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) and online gaming firm Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ: SNDA).

Collins notes that Baidu's search engine was the most frequently used in China in 2006. Last December, he adds, Baidu announced its intention to enter the Japanese search market, which is currently dominated by Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

In March, he adds, the company launched a limited beta trial of its Japanese language search services, which included web and image search.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2007, he reports, Baidu showed earnings of $0.61 a share, compared with $0.21 per share in the prior year. Revenues, he states, increased 121% to $53 million. The stock, he explains, has a relative strength rating of 99 (out of 100) and garners a B+ for accumulation and distribution.

In the declining market, the tech sector has stood out for its relative performance, according to Jospeh Hargett, an analyst with Schaeffer's Investment Research.

He explains, "Within the tech sector, there are several pockets of opportunity that could provide some nice cover for your portfolio while the storm blows over." Here, he reviews Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), which he believes "appear poised to hold their own going forward."

The advisor says, "At the end of the day, Apple has proven why its shares have vaulted more than 73% since the beginning of the year. As one of the very few stocks that closed in positive territory yesterday, it is easy to see why AAPL makes our 'fallout shelter' list."

The stock, Hargett notes, had some help, though, riding the wave of a solid earnings report (besting the Street's expectations by 20 cents per share). But, he adds, it wasn't the iPhone that propelled earnings to these stellar results; it was the Mac. The company's bread-and-butter line -- he states -- posted its highest quarterly sales ever.