Halfway through the month, it’s finally starting to feel like August.

For those of us not on vacation this week, outbound calls are going straight to voicemail, out-of-the-office emails are flooding our inboxes, and after a whirlwind couple of weeks, it appears that the annual primary market slowdown is finally upon us.

Of course, that isn’t to say that nothing is going on. Volume hasn’t quite ground to a halt, but most of the deals that launched this week were smaller and simpler than what we’ve grown accustomed to over the last month or so, and sources say the slower pace is expected to bleed into next week.