The eurozone bailout approval and the coming announcement (or continued hint) of additional quantitative easing from the FOMC is not adding to the banks at the current time. We saw a “Sell the News” reaction over Europe, and it seems as though smarter heads are under the impression that QE3 cannot be as effective as QE1 and QE2.

The “assistance-dependent” big American money-center banks are lower ahead of Bernanke. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is down 0.6% and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is down by 0.2%, but that is still on the heels of large gains in the last week. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is up 0.25% at $34.41, and that is within 2% of a year high; and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is down by a surprising 0.4% after nearly closing above $40 yesterday.

Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) is down by almost 2% as its ADRs are down 1.99% at $41.58 in trading. The banks in the lands of the PIIGS are down: National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) ADRs are down a whopping 7% at $2.42; the Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) ADRs are barely lower by 0.2% at $5.94 on very low trading volume in New York; Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) is down by 2.6% at $7.79 in its ADRs; and ADRs in Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) are down by 2.7% at $8.28.

The Brits and Swiss are not in the euro but their banking ADRs traded in New York are still closely tied due to large business exposure. Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) is holding up 0.4% at $13.95, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE: LYG) is up 0.4% (a whole penny) at $2.46, and rhe Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) is down 0.2% at $8.81 in thin volume trading. UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) is down 0.5% at $12.75 and Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) is down by 1.6% at $22.19 in lite pre-FOMC trading.

JON C. OGG