Pre-market futures are up and down this final trading day of the holiday-shortened season, and so far, September’s reputation for being a cooling agent on equity valuations — and that’s being kind — is bearing out. The four major indices have not been in lock-step, but are all down month to date: the Dow -1.22%, the S&P 500 -1.51%, the Nasdaq -1.46% and the small-cap Russell 2000 -2.42%.

We don’t have a lot of market catalysts expected today, although Wholesale Inventories for July come out after the opening bell, as does Consumer Credit, also for July, later this afternoon. Next week will be the bigger one for economic prints, with Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) figures out mid-week, along with Retail Sales and a host of other metrics. These will be closely watched by the Fed, who meets on monetary policy the following week, as well as analysts paying close attention to what the Fed is likely to do.

One of this week’s main issues is the economic slowdown in China once again — and, perhaps more importantly, the iPhone ban in the country which has sent Apple (AAPL Quick QuoteAAPL - Free Report) shares down -5.5% in the past week. But the economic pressures in the world’s second-largest economy is also affecting luxury brands such as LVMH (LVMUY Quick QuoteLVMUY - Free Report) , which is down -9.5% over the past five trading days. Much of the positive outlook for the global economy had been predicated on a continued improvement in the Chinese economy. Is this latest downturn a hiccup or the sign of something more serious?

In any case, the blue-chip Dow is on pace for its third down-week in the past four, same as the Nasdaq and Russell, while the S&P is down four straight. Keeping powder dry looks like the move, at least until new potential market movers emerge. Of those things scheduled, we’d suggest earmarking next Wednesday’s core CPI, which last month came in at 2-month lows, to +4.7%. While nicely off the 6%+ reads we were seeing a year ago, it’s still a ways from the Fed’s optimal inflation level of 2%.

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