Investors betting on international stocks trouncing the U.S. are getting a rude awakening from the Iran conflict

International stocks have taken a beating versus the U.S. this week, with signs of selling pressure persisting on Thursday as investors saw little chance of an immediate resolution to the conflict in Iran that began over the weekend.

Since the U.S. and Israel

launched air strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, international stocks are faring far worse than the S&P 500 Index SPX. The S&P 500 trounced the MSCI AC World ex-USA Index by 5.91 percentage points over the last three trading days through Wednesday, its largest three-day outperformance since April 9, according to Dow Jones Market Data.