Railroad stocks rally after strike averted, to provide a big boost to the Dow transports

Shares of railroad operators rallied in premarket trading Thursday, after a railway strike was averted as the White House said a tentative deal has been reached. Shares of CSX Corp. CSX, -1.05% jumped 3.2% ahead of the open, Union Pacific Corp. UNP, -3.69% climbed 3.5% and Norfolk Southern Corp. NSC, -2.16% hiked up 1.7%. The combined implied price gains of those stock would add about 78 points to the Dow Jones Transportation Average’s DJT, -0.41% price, which would represent a 0.6% gain. The Dow transports had fallen 4.2% the past two days amid fears of a labor strike. Meanwhile, futures YM00, +0.06% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.10% advanced 59 points, or 0.2%.