NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) -

Global hedge funds and levered exchange-traded funds (ETFs)

dumped more than $40 billion of stocks at a breakneck pace,

growing increasingly bearish after President

Donald Trump's

shock announcement of harsher-than-expected global tariffs,

according to bank notes to clients on Friday.

Since late on Wednesday, when Trump boosted tariff

barriers to their highest level in more than a century, S&P 500

companies have

lost over $4 trillion in stock market value

.

JPMorgan said in a note that volatility targeting

portfolios had between $25 billion and $30 billion in equities

to sell in the coming days, as they unwind positions to reduce

risk.

Levered ETFs had an additional $23 billion to sell to

rebalance into the close today, mostly tech stocks, JPMorgan

said.

Macro systematic strategies on Thursday also sold stocks

at higher-than-expected levels while a renewed meltdown on

Friday would force them to sell more, the bank added.

Other strategies also fueled the selloff. In a separate

note, Goldman Sachs ( GS ) told clients that equities long/short hedge

funds across the world underwent the largest selling on a net

basis in almost 15 years on Thursday, while also turning the

most bearish since 2011.

Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and JPMorgan, which provide trading and

leverage for hedge funds, track industry trends through their

clients. JPMorgan also said it uses some estimates.

Goldman did not provide the net selling dollar amount

and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bank said in the note that portfolio managers mainly

added bets against stocks as well as credit and equity

exchange-traded funds on Thursday, although they also ditched

long positions following Trump's announcement of new import

tariffs that sparked recession concerns.

U.S. stocks led the hedge fund sales, with financial shares

being net-sold at the fastest pace since 2016.

Real estate, staples and utilities, which tend to

navigate recessionary environments well, were the only sectors

investors bought on a net basis, the bank added.

With more bearish positions in their portfolios,

long/short hedge funds were outperforming the benchmark S&P 500

index with a 4.2% loss year-to-date through Friday

morning, while the index dipped 13.7%.

Goldman said leverage levels in the hedge fund industry

remain close to a one-year high.