⚔ Geopolitics risk-off · 0–6 months
A what‑if from the future

What if China rare-earth snapback hits defense supply?

Beijing re-imposes magnet and heavy-REE controls after a truce lapse, directly threatening Western missile and aircraft production and lifting defense urgency.

22%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 22% · 90% range 6–39% · 40 analogues · measured class defense 46% in 6 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — defense ≈1.2155/yr → 46% in 6 mo46%
Analyst prior · editorial share 55% of the class25%
Pooled · weight 87%23%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)23%
Published22%

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 0–6 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. Beijing re-imposes magnet and heavy-REE controls after a truce lapse, directly threatening Western missile and aircraft production and lifting defense urgency. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Defense spending ▲ · Industrial demand ▲ · Risk appetite ▼ · Trade tension ▲ — 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▼ -2.2%
hist -1.32–-0.74% · other way +1.81% (n=11)
2Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.8%
hist -1.19–-0.58% · other way +2.75% (n=11)
3Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.6%
hist -1.1–-0.3% · other way +10.49% (n=11)
4TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.6%
hist -1.68–-0.22% · other way +4.87% (n=11)
5Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.5%
hist -0.89–-0.3% · other way +2.57% (n=11)
6AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -1.7–+1.58% · other way +7.06% (n=11)
7Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -1.2–+1.48% · other way +2.05% (n=9)
8Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -1.86–+0.06% · other way +7.93% (n=11)
9Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.3%
hist -2.47–+0.23% · other way +12.35% (n=11)
10Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -0.74–-0.39% · other way -5.17% (n=8)
11Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -1.1%
hist -1.0–+0.42% · other way -8.23% (n=8)
12MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -0.94–+0.23% · other way +17.3% (n=11)
13ASML ASMLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.2%
hist -3.5–+0.87% · other way +2.4% (n=11)
14Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.9%
model prior · unmeasured

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 -1.5% · Chinese yuan -0.8% · Lockheed +0.7% · Northrop +0.6% · Aussie dollar -0.4% · Turkish lira -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 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 OPEC abandons output defense, opting for market share vs US shale 2014-11 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 Smoot-Hawley clears the US House 1929-05 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 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 Operation Sindoor: India strikes Pakistan after Pahalgam attack 2025-05 October 2024 Iranian ballistic-missile attack on Israel 2024-10 Hezbollah pager and device explosions across Lebanon 2024-09 Gold tops $2,500 for the first time on Fed rate-cut bets 2024-08 India slashes gold import duty from 15% to 6% in 2024 budget 2024-07 Trump 'Taiwan should pay for defense' chip selloff 2024-07 RTX takes $3B charge on Pratt & Whitney GTF engine flaw 2023-09 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 China fires ballistic missiles into Japan's EEZ during Taiwan drills 2022-08 Tin hits nominal record on LME above $48,000/t 2022-03 Burkina Faso coup d'etat 2022-01 Mali coup d'etat 2020-08 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 India's Balakot airstrike inside Pakistan 2019-02 Pulwama attack ignites India-Pakistan crisis 2019-02 Bitcoin Cash hash war capitulation 2018-11 US List 3 tariffs on $200B of Chinese goods finalized 2018-09 Turkish lira crisis 2018-08 US Section 301 List 1 tariffs take effect on China 2018-07 China retaliates: $50B tariff list incl. soybeans 2018-04 US Section 232 steel & aluminum tariffs imposed 2018-03 Mexican peso crash on Trump 2016 win 2016-11
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
TRY TRYSHORT-1.7% · 5d +0.3% ↺ fades74%36 0.39✓ matches cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-4.2% · 5d -1.7%66%37 0.29✓ matches cascade
CNY CNYSHORT-0.3% · 5d -0.1%62%36 0.24✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+4.7% · 5d +3.2%63%19 0.21⚠ differs
ETH ETHSHORT-2.9% · 5d -4.2%62%31 0.20✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-1.4% · 5d -1.0%62%36 0.20✓ matches cascade
10y yield DGS10LONG+12bp · 5d +7bp60%39 0.19·
MRVL MRVLSHORT-1.7% · 5d -2.9%62%36 0.17✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.2%61%36 0.17✓ matches cascade
AVGO AVGOLONG+2.0% · 5d -2.1% ↺ fades59%36 0.15⚠ differs
SPX SPXLONG+0.1% · 5d +0.2%59%39 0.15⚠ differs
KWEB KWEBSHORT-0.8% · 5d -2.0%59%35 0.15✓ matches cascade
XLF XLFSHORT-0.2% · 5d +0.1% ↺ fades59%36 0.14✓ matches cascade
AUD AUDSHORT-0.8% · 5d -0.4%59%36 0.13✓ matches cascade

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.