“…and the young they can lose hope ‘cause they can’t see beyond today.”

I don’t think Eddie Vedder was writing about investing but he might as well have been if judging by information we received about fund flows during a recent discussion with our friends at Dodge & Cox.

Although investors poured $19.6 billion into international stock funds from 1/1/10 through 6/30/10 (source: Morningstar) they yanked $390 million or 1.2% of the total from Dodge & Cox International Stock (“DODFX”) in June alone.

Relative performance data doesn’t support the move. In June DODFX returned -1.87% compared to the -3.75% return of the MSCI EAFE Index. YTD numbers confirm the relative outperformance with DODFX returning -5.9% compared to EAFE’s -10.3%. Since its mid-2001 inception DODFX returned 8.0% relative to EAFE’s 1.1%.

To be sure DODFX like most foreign stock offerings has been plagued by concerns over the European debt crisis. Specifically DODFX’s performance has been negatively impacted by untimely forays into the financial sector.

So why the investor rush to dump DODFX? Hmmm…