This follows an election that seems destined to end with a hung parliament, or a very unstable coalition at best.

The significance is that Italy -- which is Europe's largest sovereign debt market -- may be ungovernable, raising the risk of a disruption to the progress that has brought borrowing costs down across the periphery over the last several months.

Furthermore, the election is a gigantic slap in the face to Brussels/German/Etc., as the big victors (Silvio Berlusconi and populist Beppe Grillo) ran on explicitly anti-Brussels campaigns