JJC:    On days like today, days when the market is hideous, days when the Dow Jones Industrial average plummets 283 points, the most in a month... It's hard to believe that happier days will ever, ever be here again... at least this year...

Today, the bank stocks gave up the ghost after an amazing run, as traders took advantage of their huge gains to rip through the register and short sellers worked the rumor magic on financials big and small, particularly those without fortress balance sheets, Citigroup (C), American International Group (AIG), Merrill Lynch (MER), Lehman Brothers (LEH), nare-do-well, Washington Mutual (WM)... This was the day when people talked about demand destruction and chaos throughout the western world...

As if today's chaos is different from any other day's chaos... On days like this, we forget that there are actually some big positives lurking... How about the $300 billion going to the FHA, which will service our new mortgage resolution trust, not unlike the 1990's resolution trust... Except this time, we bail out the banks and the individuals with mortgages they can't pay, not the commercial mortgages that crushed the banks in the days of your... Oh, we forget on these miserable days the fact that most importantly, gasoline is coming down, and coming down hard... That's why tonight, in the midst of this hard shroud of gloom, we want to think about a company that lower gasoline prices would benefit the most... Do you mind if, just for a moment, I dust the bears off my shoulders, and suggest that you buy a stock, forget this, let me spring a concept on you, I know it's just the long term...

Remember that?... A company that again and again keeps knocking the knockdown by pessimism... This stock is probably the most harangued and beaten up every time the gasoline goes up...

And it is the stock of the Walt Disney Co. (DIS)... Yeah, Walt Disney... DIS reported a miracle quarter earlier in the year, yet many of the big analysts turned their backs on it because, you guessed it, rising gasoline prices, skyrocketing airfares... Now we suggested it, if you just want our bonafides... We suggested you buy DIS before that last quarter, and that was one of the great, great opportunities, thank you very much... As the pessimists were just dead wrong... And we're going back to the well... We think they're going to be wrong again and here's why... Just when everyone thinks that Disney's world is too expensive to travel to, we've got a timely piece this week from my buddy-pal-friend, Rich Greenfield, at Pally research, telling us the wonder of wonders, I kid you not, auto traffic to Disneyworld is actually strong... The bears sure aren't factoring that one in, they're only counting the airplanes... All right, listen to this, it makes sense... I want you to get in my head with the 49 other people and understand why in the midst of a horrible day I could ever think about anything positive... And I'm turning some obvious negatives into positives...

Think about it, most Americans, you can't afford to go overseas to go on vacation, why?... Because of the week dollar... At the same time, that weak dollar is making Disneyland and Disneyworld cheap for foreigners... It's become an inexpensive family vacation for everybody compared to a lot of other destinations, especially if you factor in another issue, room rates... Room rates are relatively much cheaper than they were during the last down turn, the 1990-1991 recession... Now, 75% of Disneyworld's hotel rooms are in the moderate or value price category... In 1991, 55% were in the premium price... Look, this is not a ridiculous idea... The casino stocks were all up on big on the perspective declining gasoline, even after the savage beating they took today... DIS's done virtually nothing, it's up like about a point in the same timeframe... Lehman (LEH) just downgraded DIS because of the economy and ABC, which the analyst there says it's just like the rest of the networks, it's just not true... It's got a larger entertainment footprint... It's got ESPN, still the best area in broadcasting, because it can't be TIVO'd... And doesn't the LEH guy recognize that gas prices are about to come down, making DIS a cheaper destination?... Most analysts are way behind the curve... I don't think you can afford to wait until gas hits $3.50 before you buy DIS... We think you have to buy this stock right into a day like today, where everybody thinks the whole big move we had is about to repeal and we're back in a world of disaster...

You've got to buy it right into the negativity... Just like the last time... Yes, I want to be price sensitive... I want to buy it under $30... I hope we can get it there... That's a buck below where it went out today... People forget, by the way, that DIS isn't just domestic theme parks... You know, DIS has got overseas business... Properties in Hong Kong and Paris, and they're seeing double digit attendance growth... Once again, the weak dollar is helping Disney, because the currency translation will boost their numbers even further... I'm talking about a stock that everyone's convinced has to go down... And all the reasons why they think so is why it should be going up... And I think that all of this is really being obscured by a fog of worry about gasoline... How about the fact that, how is this affected by gasoline?... DIS is the premier creator of new franchises, that work regardless of the price of premium unleaded... I'm talking about franchises like High School Musical, okay... How about something like Wall-E?... All right, Pirates of the Caribbean, yo ho, yo, ho... Hannah Montana... And Snow White!... The Chinese may be able to knock off the DVD's but they can't knock off these characters... Merchandizing, merchandizing...

Disney is a franchise machine... Think about how many hundreds of million of dollars it takes for Colgate or Unilever to create and support a new brand... Sometimes it takes a billion dollars... DIS can do it with a fraction of the cost... Some people would analogize that DIS is kind of a pharmaceutical company with blockbuster drugs and total patent protection... DIS is like a drug company... I belt Walt's loving it... DIS has also got a great CEO, Bob Iger... I am a huge fan... In my opinion, he's navigated all these downturns perfectly... Why doesn't he ever get any credit?... Why doesn't he get credit now?...

And I think that's the other thing that is consistently overlooked about DIS it's the one stock I want every parent to buy every kid for their birthday and the holidays when they're born... Because I think it will be the one they are indoctrinated to from the ages of 1-10, just as I was... It is really important on these gloomy days to think about a longer term position... I said the same thing to Regis and Kelly today, on their fabulous show... Kelly's got three kids... Regis has a new grandchild, trouble... And I told them both, this is the kind of negative moment where you want to sock in some DIS for the kids... I myself, am an old DIS hand... In fact, I was among the first visitors to Disneyworld, when it opened there, literally, and I have been there 11 times and once to Disneyland, just two years ago... When I was a reporter for the Tallacy Democrat, I actually tried to interview Mickey when the place just opened... I took offense when he was silent, what did I know?... A dozen trips later and I still love the place... That's got to mean something, well not really...

Anyway, with happier days on the way when it comes to gasoline, all right?... The premier metric that we're using, I think you've got to take advantage of today's price that today's pessimism is giving you.