THIS week starts with investors celebrating the latest twist in the credit crisis as the government rides to the rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The days ahead will then see the first big onslaught of earnings reports for the second quarter as well as key inflation data and even testimony from Fed chief Ben Bernanke.

'Those are all things that will probably be of vital interest to Wall Street as we go through the week, but all that's pushed to the side today,' said John O'Donoghue, co-head of listed equity trading at S G Cowen shortly before the opening bell yesterday. 'Everyone will be focused on Fannie and Freddie and figuring out the implications of the government rescue plan for the stock market,' he said.

Indeed, in the early going yesterday, the market was all about the plan to shore up the mortgage giants, as stocks took off at the opening bell. Investors sent the Dow Jones Industrials up sharply at the outset, although an initial triple-digit gain had been reduced to a modest advance of 44 points, or 0.30 per cent at 10 am, New York time. The S&P 500 was up 3.73 points, or 0.30 per cent, and the Nasdaq was advancing, by two points or 0.08 per cent.

Wall Street will also get back to sifting through a mountain of key earnings news and economic data coming its way.

A slew of major banks will announce their second quarter results to a market that's dealing with the expectation of more mortgage crisis related bank failures after regulators had to take over IndyMac Bank last Friday.

But this is also a big week for the technology sector, which has held its own so far. It was not lost on market strategists like Ryan & Beck's Joe Battipaglia that the Nasdaq Composite, the proxy for the overall technology sector, gave up only 0.3 per cent last week as the Dow Jones Industrials and the broader S&P 500 sank by nearly 2 per cent. 'The tech sector has been taken down just as hard as the rest of the market during the past six weeks, which sets it up for upside moves if we get solid earnings numbers from some of the big tech companies reporting this week,' he said.

Big techs reporting include Intel today and EBay tomorrow. Google, IBM and Microsoft all report their profit numbers on Thursday.

It's also a big week for the drug sector, with biotech giant Genentech reporting later yesterday, followed by Johnson and Johnson today and Abbott Labs tomorrow.

The beleaguered airlines sector is also well represented, with American Airlines' parent AMR reporting tomorrow, along with Delta Airlines, and Continental chiming in on Thursday.

In case that's not enough for investors to digest, Coca-Cola, United Technologies and Ford report on Thursday, as well.

'And you can't ignore the economic data this week, either,' said Mr Battipaglia. Today, retail sales for June are reported. On the same day, the Empire State survey is reported and producer prices for June are released. The CPI, which measures the all-important consumer inflation data, is scheduled for release tomorrow morning, as is industrial production.

The Fed is scheduled to release the minutes of the last FOMC meeting tomorrow. That dovetails nicely with the two days of congressional testimony on the economy by Mr Bernanke beginning today.

Thursday's calendar brings weekly jobless claims, housing starts and the Philadelphia Fed survey for July.

Economist Joel Naroff at Naroff Economic Advisors noted: 'If we get more solid numbers this week, it could mean the difference between a one-day rally or a week-long rally.'