I love the fiction maintained by the wire services that the bank stress tests are only for a really, really bad recession. Reuters is typical:

The banks have been negotiating with their regulators about the depth of their capital needs, should the recession prove to be deeper and longer than anticipated. Markets have been anxiously anticipating the results, which will differentiate the strongest banks from those still expected to sustain considerable credit losses.

We're already in a really bad recession. The stress tests are testing for current conditions. On the other hand, if markets were truly anxious, the S&P 500 wouldn't be over 9,000.