JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, we can get a check now on how Vodafone and Mannesmann's stock are trading right now in European trading.</s>DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: For that and more we go to Todd Benjamin, live in London. Hello again, Todd.</s>TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Deb and John. Yes, Mannesmann's up 3.7 percent, and Vodafone AirTouch is up about a half percent. By the way, Mannesmann is one of the top picks that Lehman Brothers has for 2000, here, and one of their top-10 euro stock picks for Europe. Others on that list include SAM Lithography; that is a Dutch semiconductor equipment maker. It's up nearly 12 percent, today. The company also said they expect strong growth, this year. Another one of Lehman's picks is TotalFina, the French oil company, it's up five percent, and Ericsson, of course, the telecoms company, it is up two percent. In terms of the overall markets, mixed bag today. London is down nearly half a percent, the Dax is up one percent, Paris is up more than one percent and Zurich is off half a percent. In the currency markets, the dollar is a third-yen stronger against the Japanese currency, the euro's a half-cent stronger against the greenback and the pound is slightly stronger. And I do want to mention oil. Oil is up 14 cents, just under 26 bucks a barrel. Back to you, John and Deb.</s>DEFTERIOS: The European Central Bank meeting, Todd: What's the likely outcome, if not interest rates, the comments everybody's looking for?</s>BENJAMIN: Well, we'll be looking at the comments, absolutely, and the expectation on interest rates is no change this time. Most people are expecting that they'll make a move possibly in early March following the wage negotiations going on in Germany.
European Markets Mixed Ahead of ECB Meeting on Interest Rates