Hedge funds are dumping stocks at the fastest pace in three months as what’s often called ” the smart money ” stepped up bearish wagers against equities amid the recent pullback. The professionals sold global stocks on a net basis for a second straight week last week, driven almost entirely by short sales, according to Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage data. It marked the biggest selling week for hedge funds since mid-January, the data showed. Separately, Bank of America’s client data showed a similar trend. Its hedge fund clients sold stocks for a fifth consecutive week last week, exiting shares across small-, mid- and large-cap companies. The market is in the middle of a retreat as investors reassess the Federal Reserve’s path to cutting interest rates. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.3% last week, its worst weekly performance since March 2023. The S & P 500 declined nearly 1%, its biggest weekly loss since early January, although the equity benchmark is still only 1.7% below its 52-week high. .SPX YTD mountain S & P 500 “Valuations are so stretched right now that anything less than perfection from economic data or any geopolitical noise can create substantial and quick selloffs.” said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at Bahnsen Group. Consumer discretionary stocks were among the worst performing and the most sold U.S. sectors on a net basis last week, Goldman said. The Wall Street investment bank noted that hedge fund managers reduced long positions in the sector every day and shorted retail-focused exchange-traded funds. The SPDR S & P Retail ETF (XRT) dropped 5.5% on the week. One of the biggest drivers of the recent pullback has been a shift in interest rate expectations. The market has again dialed back its outlook for rate cuts this year, seeing a coin flip between two and three reductions, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge of trading in the fed funds futures market. Traders started the year pricing in as many as seven rate cuts for 2024. “We think June is no longer a given for the Fed to start cutting rates — but see rate cuts coming as inflation falls,” Jean Boivin, head of the BlackRock Investment Institute, said in a note Monday. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.