Re/code Daily - All Eyes Are on Google's First Earnings Report After Alphabet Reorg

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•	Alphabet, the holding company the Google created for itself last August, reports its earnings for the first time as Alphabet today. A cheat sheet that Alphabet released last week has made Wall Street giddy, because it suggests they'll start putting out serious numbers about its moonshot companies. [Mark Bergen \| Re/code]
•	Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, at one point the most valuable startup in the world, didn't have a great 2015. It missed an 80 million unit sales target, losing lots of market share to competitors like Huawei. But despite a weak year, Xiaomi kept its spot as the No. 1 phonemaker in China, and looks prepared for a big 2016 fight against Huawei. [Eva Dou \| The Wall Street Journal]
•	Ex-NPR correspondent and New York Times-bestselling author Eric Weiner has a new book that has a simple question: How does geography affect genius? On the "Re/code Decode" podcast, Weiner explains to Kara Swisher what ancient Calcutta, Mozart's Austria and maybe even Silicon Valley have in common. [Eric Johnson \| Re/code]
•	In October, Europe's highest court killed a data sharing pact between the EU and the United States, a bedrock legal agreement for companies like Facebook and Google. This past weekend, talks stalled between American and European officials renegotiating the arrangement, which puts American tech companies in a precarious legal position. [Mark Scott \| The New York Times]
•	Today marks the first contest of the 2016 presidential election, as the Iowa caucuses get underway. Among the Republicans, the key question is whether Donald Trump's huge lead in the polls translates to the ballot box as he fends off Ted Cruz. In the Sanders-Clinton battle, the Vermont socialist aims to pick up momentum in the Hawkeye State ahead of his likely victory in the New Hampshire primary. [Steve Holland and James Oliphant \| Reuters]