⚔ Geopolitics risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if Brazil pivots its soy exports entirely to China?

Brazil redirecting all soy to China and tariffing US ethanol/tech is bullish CBOT soybeans on US export displacement and a relative win for Chinese crushers, so the directional read is agri, not a generic Nasdaq selloff. Rhymes with 2018 when China's retaliatory soy tariff handed Brazil record share and US farm-belt pain. China is the swing soy buyer; the china_growth +0.3 here is questionable - the shock helps Chinese feed costs but US soy/ethanol is the real loser, so the cascade is mislabeled.

30%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 30% · 90% range 16–45% · 40 analogues · measured class trade_war 87% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — trade_war ≈1.3449/yr → 87% in 18 mo87%
Analyst prior · editorial share 38% of the class33%
Pooled · weight 87%31%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)31%
Published30%

The class rate is measured from our dated, sourced event library (decade-normalized Poisson — the full table is public at base_rates.json). The variant’s share within its class is the analyst’s editorial call, published so you can audit it. A wider range means thinner precedent. Full recipe: methodology · scored at Reality Check.

The butterfly cascade

How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.

Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving

Our model's odds (gold) over time vs the crowd's (Polymarket, blue), from the past toward the 6–18 months horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. The gold path is an illustrative reconstruction anchored to today's estimate — real dated events, not a live re-estimate history.

loading the timeline…

What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Brazil hikes tariffs on US ethanol and tech after Washington levies, redirecting soy exports entirely to China. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Trade tension ▲ · Food inflation ▲ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.

If it happens — the markets it would move

Biggest moves first. Projected moves are cascade-model priors; hist A–B% = what comparable past events actually did (measured abnormal returns), and model prior · unmeasured marks markets with no analogue backing yet. Tap any market for its price history.

MarketClassProjected move
1Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.8%
hist -1.27–-0.42% · other way -0.56% (n=12)
2Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.6%
hist -1.07–-0.47% · other way +1.1% (n=12)
3Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -1.0–-0.36% · other way +2.18% (n=12)
4TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -0.93–-0.39% · other way +2.02% (n=12)
5Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -1.74–+0.06% · other way -1.25% (n=12)
6Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -0.78–-0.43% · other way -0.47% (n=12)
7AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -0.58–-0.28% · other way -1.86% (n=12)
8Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -1.32–+1.84% · other way -1.79% (n=12)
9Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -0.92–+0.08% · other way +4.47% (n=12)
10Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -0.9–+0.94% · other way +1.54% (n=12)
11ASML ASMLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -2.66–+0.6% · other way -2.98% (n=12)
12Chinese yuan CNY 📈 chartFX▼ -0.8%
hist -0.96–-0.08% · other way -0.7% (n=12)
13Qualcomm QCOMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -4.18–+0.81% · other way -1.53% (n=12)
14Intel INTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.6%
hist -7.09–+0.61% · other way -3.9% (n=12)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
Cash / hedgeRaise cash and hold the long hedges above; this scenario is net risk-off.
For a common-man portfolio: A typical stock-heavy portfolio is at risk. Consider trimming equities, raising cash, and a small cash hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -1.2% · Chinese yuan -0.8% · Aussie dollar -0.3% · Freeport (copper) -0.4% · Turkish lira -0.3% · Indian rupee -0.3%

Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did

Across 40 analogous events (overlap‑weighted), as abnormal returns — market beta stripped, so it's the event's own effect, not the market backdrop. Shown at 20 days (persistent) and 5 days (immediate); ↺ fades = the two horizons disagree. Confidence = consistency × sample × significance.

China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 Turkish lira record low on rate cuts 2021-11 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 February 2018 hot wage print triggers rate scare 2018-02 Mexican peso crash on Trump 2016 win 2016-11 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1978-12 Argentina Rodrigazo shock 1975-06 Smoot-Hawley clears the US House 1929-05 Iranian rial slides to a new record low 2025-12 Record $19bn crypto liquidation cascade 2025-10 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 US-China extend tariff truce by another 90 days 2025-08 Trump's 50% copper tariff sends Comex copper to a record 2025-07 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 H5N1 bird flu record US egg prices 2025-04 Tariff-pause record rally and VIX collapse 2025-04 Trump signs 25% Section 232 tariff on imported automobiles 2025-03 Tesla shares crater on DOGE political backlash and Europe sales collapse 2025-03 TSMC slumps as DeepSeek roils AI-chip demand assumptions 2025-02 Micron's weak FQ2 guidance sparks a sharp December selloff 2024-12 Nasdaq Composite first close above 20000 2024-12 Henry Hub natural gas falls to an all-time inflation-adjusted low on record output 2024-11 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 Nikkei 225 record single-day rebound 2024-08 Nikkei 225 worst single-day crash since 1987 2024-08 KOSPI biggest-ever point loss triggers circuit breaker 2024-08 VIX third-highest spike on record 2024-08 Intel's Q2 earnings trigger its worst single-day crash since 1974 2024-08 Megacap AI-capex doubt selloff 2024-07 India slashes gold import duty from 15% to 6% in 2024 budget 2024-07 Trump 'Taiwan should pay for defense' chip selloff 2024-07
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-5.5% · 5d -3.7%75%35 0.49✓ matches cascade
KWEB KWEBSHORT-3.2% · 5d -1.5%71%34 0.35✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-0.8% · 5d -0.7%69%34 0.29✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-4.4% · 5d -5.2%68%33 0.26✓ matches cascade
KRW KRWLONG+0.5% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades64%34 0.24⚠ differs
AMD AMDSHORT-0.1% · 5d -0.6%66%35 0.23✓ matches cascade
QCOM QCOMSHORT-3.4% · 5d -2.5%67%34 0.23✓ matches cascade
BABA BABASHORT-1.1% · 5d -1.9%60%34 0.16✓ matches cascade
MRVL MRVLLONG+1.4% · 5d -2.0% ↺ fades60%34 0.15⚠ differs
INR INRSHORT-0.3% · 5d +0.2% ↺ fades60%34 0.15✓ matches cascade
CNY CNYSHORT-0.5% · 5d -0.3%57%34 0.14✓ matches cascade
NDX NDXSHORT-0.3% · 5d -1.1%60%34 0.13✓ matches cascade
NVDA NVDASHORT-0.2% · 5d -2.0%60%34 0.13✓ matches cascade
AVGO AVGOLONG+2.3% · 5d -1.4% ↺ fades57%34 0.13⚠ differs

Why this probability

Brazil soy-to-China pivot already structurally underway; full retaliation over 18mo moderately likely. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Crowd odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-07-03.