London (CNN Business) 1. Google earnings: Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, will report results for the final three months of 2018 after the closing bell.

Analysts are expecting sales growth of 20% over the previous year. That would require a strong performance from Google's massive advertising business.

Google suffered a series of PR snafus at the end of last year that helped push its stock lower. Congress grilled its CEO over data privacy, employees walked out over sexual harassment scandals and it disclosed a security bug.

Shares in Google are now trading just above their level from a year ago.

2. The fate of Sears: The moment of truth has arrived for Sears SHLDQ The moment of truth has arrived for, once the United States' largest and most important retailer.