VENATOR REPORTS EARNINGS DROP, THOUGH SALES REMAINED STEADY

          Venator Group reported net income of $37M, or $.27 per
     share, for the quarter ended January 30, compared with
     $115M, or $.85 per share, a year earlier, according to
     Rebecca Quick of the WALL STREET JOURNAL.  Venator, which
     operates Champs, Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker, said that
     although its Foot Locker unit sold just as many sneakers as
     the previous quarter, the average retail price per pair
     dropped 8%.  Sales at Venator "slipped" 5.8%, to $1.33B for
     the quarter (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/11).  Venator said that
     its fourth-quarter profit dropped after it "cut prices to
     draw shoppers and reduced inventory" at Champs and Foot
     Locker (N.Y. TIMES, 3/11).  The AP's Rachel Beck writes that
     as Venator "struggles to hold its share in the crowded
     sporting goods marketplace," some analysts are "beginning to
     speculate about the company's fate." Barnard's Retail Trend
     Report's Kurt Barnard: "Venator doesn't seem to have a clue
     what to do with itself" (AP, 3/11).