I use this jQuery code to set the mouse pointer to its busy state (hourglass) during an Ajax call...
$(\'body\').css(\'cursor\', \'wait\');
Hey Guys, I have a nitty gritty solution which works on all browsers. Assumption is protoype library is used. Someone can write this as plain Javascript too. The solution is to have a div on top of all just after you reset the cursor and shake it a little bit to cause the cursor to move. This is published in my blog http://arunmobc.blogspot.com/2011/02/cursor-not-changing-issue.html.