Italy's Political Foibles Sink Financial Markets

When has Italy not been a mess?

STOCK markets and southern European government bonds sank on Tuesday on fears that an electoral stalemate in Italy would leave its economic reform efforts in tatters and reignite the euro zone's broader debt crisis.

Italian shares lost as much as 5 percent of their value while 10-year bond yields saw the biggest jump in percentage terms this year after polls showed no single political force would have a majority in Italy's two houses of parliament.

A rally at the start of 2013 had encouraged hopes among policymakers that the euro zone was past the worst, but a steady flow of bleak news on its major economies has already undermined that faith.