Jon Najarian notes on Minyanville.com that India’s Sensex Index has managed to avoid any damage from the unrest in neighboring Pakistan (the Karachi Stock Market dropped nearly 5% today, the first day of trading since Benazir Bhutto was killed last week; the Sensex recorded a modest 0.4% gain). “Given the turmoil in Pakistan, you might expect the Sensex to be dominated by fear, or at least trepidation, but nothing it seems can slow the rise of this emerging giant,” Najarian says. Indeed, the Sensex gained 47% this year, hitting 40 new record closing highs along the way, and has risen more than 520% over the last six years.
Thinking that the small uptick in sales of existing homes is a signal of stabilization? Think again, advise economists at Lehman Brothers. “Given stress in the mortgage market and depressed buyer sentiment, we judge this to be a brief respite and look for sales to fall further,” they wrote in a note. And even amid signs that inventories are finally starting to fall, “the inventory correction promises to be painful, especially as foreclosed homes return to the market.”
Shares of Baidu.com are down 1.9% following news of the death of the Chinese search giant’s CFO. But analysts at J.P. Morgan see little impact on the company’s business. “While employees’ sentiment is likely to be negative in the near-term, we believe the business impact is not significant,” analyst Dick Wei wrote.
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