The stock market meandered in a narrow range today, resuming its sluggish trend of late last week. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 4.64 to 2,036.97 by 3 p.m. on Wall Street. But losers outnumbered gainers by about 7 to 4 in the overall tally of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 544 up, 940 down and 449 unchanged. Evidence that the economy continues to grow at a moderate pace has lately been met with little enthusiasm by investors. The government reported this morning that factory orders increased 1.6 percent in March. The market also hasn't shown much response to generally strong corporate earnings reports for the first quarter. Analysts say individual investors and professional money managers continue to shy away from stocks, with memories still fresh of the crash last fall and controversy continuing over the effects of computer program trading. Energy stocks were mostly lower on news that oil-producing nations hadn't reached any agreement to restrain production. Amoco dropped | to 77{; Mobil { to 46\; Atlantic Richfield 1] to 87\; Occidental Petroleum ] to 26|, and Chevron | to 47]. Atlantic Richfield reported sharply higher first-quarter profits. At the same time, airline stocks rose on the prospect of lower fuel prices. AMR added 1[ to 44\; Allegis 1{ to 83{, and Delta Air Lines 1[ to 49|. USG gained { to 41{. Desert Partners, which is offering $42 a share in a hostile takover bid for the company, said it was willing to raise the price tag to $45 a share if USG negotiates a merger agreement. The NYSE's composite index of all its listed common stocks dropped .36 to 147.51. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was down 1.20 at 301.94. Volume on the Big Board came to 116.19 million shares with an hour to go.
