Merger Hopes Pull Rails to New Peaks
\E\V YORK, Nov. 24 (AP)ÛÓRails went to new highs, adding their strength to aerospace issues, airlines and other glamour stocks with the result that the stock market advanced today despite weakness in a number of blue chins.</br></br>the Dow-Jones Industrial Average had a gain of 2.39 at the end of the first hour but wiped this out to close unchanged to 948.94.</br></br>Other indicators, howevei, were unanimous in calling it a higher market. Standard & PoorÛªs 500-stock index, which represents about 85 per cent of the quoted values on the New York Stock Exchange, rose .16 to a historic closing high of 91.94.</br></br>Analysts said that merger-minded rails seemed heartened greatly by a favorable court decision Monday on the projected Atlantic Coast Line-Seaboard Airline Railroad merger. New York Central, up 3%, and Pennsylvania, up 3r;a, advanced like Siamese twins.</br></br>The Dow .loncs Rails advanced 3.11 to a record closing high of 240.89. Both Central and Pennsy attracted further buying by making and upside breakout in their price chart pattern, brokers said. The rise to a new high in the average was also a tip to chart-minded investors that buying was in order, Wall Street sources said.