The recent market downturn, which pushed the S&P 500 into correction territory after falling more than 10% from its peak, was not driven by hedge funds rushing to exit equity positions, according to a report by MarketWatch citing a client note from Barclays.

Instead, institutional investors had already been scaling back their equity exposure before the sell-off, suggesting the decline was driven more by fundamental concerns rather than a technical unwinding of crowded positions.

Barclays new US equity strategy team, led by Venu Krishna, found that global macro hedge funds had reduced equity exposure to near-neutral levels, while multi-strategy hedge funds had consolidated their equity holdings from the previous year.

In addition, long-only investors had also trimmed positions to below long-term median levels, though they remained more exposed compared to the August 2023 sell-off.

"We think this frames the current pullback as less of a technical unwind and more of a fundamental reassessment of the growth outlook amid a significant rise in economic and policy uncertainty," the Barclays team wrote.

Beyond institutional positioning, Barclays noted that retail investor sentiment has turned deeply negative, marking a sharp contrast to the post-2020 election rally. A key factor is that stocks and home equity now make up 60% of US household net worth, making consumers highly sensitive to market fluctuations.

"This has led to a heightened degree of sensitivity among US households to changes in the domestic stock market, with retail outflows from US equities accelerating in the past two weeks," Barclays noted.