Well that didn't take long…

Three days into the new trading year and European banks are back to business.  And by business I mean crumbling like a cookie all over the table.

Before we get to that sink full of dirty dishes, here’s my daily linkfest live at the Wall Street Journal:  The Good Leads

Okay, here’s MarketWatch:

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Fresh concerns about the health of European banks prompted steep declines for stock markets across the Continent on Thursday, with Italy and Spain among the worst hit.

The Stoxx Europe 600 XX:SXXP -0.78%  dropped 0.7% to 248 in mid-morning trading. It fell 0.6% Wednesday, snapping a four-day winning streak.

Banks posted especially steep losses on Thursday after Spain’s economy minister told the Financial Times that Spanish banks will have to set aside as much as 50 billion euros ($65 billion), which amounts to 4% of Spain’s GDP, in extra provisions on bad property assets.

Spain’s IBEX 35 index XX:IBEX -2.02%  dropped 1.6% to 8,448.7, with Banco Santander SA ES:SAN -2.85% STD -4.91%  down 2.9% and BBVA SA BBVA -5.50% ES:BBVA -3.65%  down 3.3%.

In Italy, the FTSE MIB index XX:FTSEMIB -3.20%  slumped 2.5% to 14,951.

US futures down a bit.  The thing to understand here is that it’s not as though US companies have exposure to European banks – the problem is that US stocks are now highly correlated with the EURUSD, when the euro rallies it is seen as a risk-on day and stocks get whipped up into a frenzy.

But today is not to be one of those days, I suppose.

Europe is back to being Europe.