The Standard & Poor’s 500 index (closing price) peaked on July 31 at 4588.96. The index is down 5.9% since then (as of the September 22 close.) That’s not correction territory (a drop of 10% ore more) but I’d say stocks can feel the hot breath of a correction on the back of their necks,

The small-cap Russell 2000 Index has lost more than 11% from its July 31 closing high, roughly twice the decline in the S&P 500 Index over the same time.

There are other signs of trouble in the stock market. The S&P 500 is headed for its first quarterly loss in a year, just had its worst week since March 10, and has shed 2.8% since Wednesday, the day of the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement that featured the theme of “higher for longer” rates.

Investors are pulling money from equity funds globally at the fastest pace since December, Bank of America Corp. strategists say.

Which puts a lot of pressure on earnings in the quarter that ends on September 30. The consensus of Wall Street analysts is that companies are expected to post profit declines of 1.1% in the third quarter. That’s still negative but quite an improvement from the July quarter. And earnings are expected to increase for at least the next four quarters. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are predicting that economic growth will slow through the middle of next year, then pick back up again.

So a wobble worth watching? Yes.

And certainly not a time to be piling on earnings and revenue growth rate risk in growth momentum stocks, in my opinion.