🏛 Central Banks & Macro mixed · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if DRC cobalt export ban tightens the battery chain?

Kinshasa extends and deepens its cobalt export quota to lift prices, squeezing EV and electronics makers reliant on Congolese hydroxide supply.

40%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 40% · 90% range 13–67% · 40 analogues · measured class deflation 44% in 18 mo · 3% held back for the unknown
how we built this number — every step
Measured class rate — deflation ≈0.3895/yr → 44% in 18 mo44%
Analyst prior · editorial share 100% of the class48%
Pooled · weight 87%41%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)41%
Published40%

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 mixed shock. Kinshasa extends and deepens its cobalt export quota to lift prices, squeezing EV and electronics makers reliant on Congolese hydroxide supply. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Clean-energy abundance ▲ · Industrial demand ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · Risk appetite ▼ — 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
1Energy sector XLEon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -1.79–+0.14% · other way -3.24% (n=11)
2Brent crude BRENTon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.7%
hist -3.15–+0.56% · other way -5.19% (n=11)
3ExxonMobil XOM 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.6%
hist -1.29–+0.2% · other way -0.93% (n=12)
4WTI crude CLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.6%
hist -2.58–+0.35% · other way -5.24% (n=11)
5Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▲ +0.6%
hist -2.48–+0.92% · other way -4.33% (n=11)
6United Airlines UAL 📈 chartEquity▲ +0.4%
hist -2.13–+5.76% · other way +28.5% (n=11)
7Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.2%
hist -3.31–+0.7% · other way -0.98% (n=11)
8Chevron CVX 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.3%
hist -0.82–+0.2% · other way -1.39% (n=12)
9Delta DAL 📈 chartEquity▲ +0.3%
hist -1.54–+4.21% · other way +17.42% (n=11)
10Platinum XPTon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.1%
hist -2.58–+1.05% · other way -8.1% (n=11)
11Palladium XPDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.1%
hist -2.49–+1.03% · other way -8.86% (n=11)
1230y Treasury yield DGS30 📈 chartRate▲ +1bp
hist -0.65–+2.92% · other way +18.9% (n=12)
1310y Treasury yield DGS10 📈 chartRate▲ +1bp
hist -0.73–+2.82% · other way +17.4% (n=12)

Probable recommendation

If the scenario above plays out, the probable cross‑asset positioning → a scenario‑conditional read, not personalized investment advice
For a common-man portfolio: Mixed for a typical portfolio — the move is more about rotation than direction. Favour the winners over the losers below rather than net exposure.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): ExxonMobil -0.6% · Freeport (copper) +0.6% · United Airlines +0.4% · Chevron -0.3% · Delta +0.3% · 30y Treasury yield +1bp

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.

Henry Hub natural gas hits a 25-year low amid record US production 2024-11 Waha hub natural gas prices crash to record negative on Permian glut 2024-08 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08 Silver Thursday 1980-03 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Volcker Saturday Night Special 1979-10 1979 Iranian Revolution oil shock 1979-01 Gold tops $4,000 and silver spikes past $50 in historic squeeze 2025-10 Platinum hits an 11-year high on Chinese jewelry demand and deficit 2025-06 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Nasdaq Composite first close above 20000 2024-12 Palladium jumps after US pushes G7 sanctions on Russian metal 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 NIF achieves fusion ignition 2022-12 August 2022 hot CPI 2022-09 Powell's hawkish 'pain' speech at Jackson Hole 2022-08 Bank of England's first post-pandemic rate hike 2021-12 Turkish lira record low on rate cuts 2021-11 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 February 2018 hot wage print triggers rate scare 2018-02 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 China rout & circuit-breaker / yuan slide 2016-01 SNB introduces negative interest rates 2014-12 Russian ruble 'Black Tuesday' 2014-12 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Bank of Japan Kuroda QQE 'bazooka' 2013-04 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Silver hits 30-year high as JPMorgan and HSBC face manipulation suits 2010-10 Oil collapses from $147 to the $30s as the GFC craters demand 2008-12 Crude oil all-time high 2008-07 2008 global rice crisis: Thai benchmark tops $1,000/ton 2008-04 Gulf War air campaign begins 1991-01 Chernobyl disaster 1986-04 1986 oil price collapse 1986-02 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-2.9% · 5d -1.0%70%31 0.36⚠ differs
CL CLSHORT-2.0% · 5d -3.2%69%31 0.33✓ matches cascade
XLE XLESHORT-1.3% · 5d -1.4%67%31 0.32✓ matches cascade
BRENT BRENTSHORT-2.5% · 5d -3.2%66%31 0.28✓ matches cascade
FCX FCXSHORT-2.4% · 5d -1.3%64%31 0.25⚠ differs
XPT XPTSHORT-2.5% · 5d -0.7%58%31 0.15⚠ differs
XPD XPDSHORT-2.4% · 5d -2.2%58%31 0.14⚠ differs
UAL UALLONG+5.3% · 5d -1.4% ↺ fades56%31 0.12✓ matches cascade
DAL DALLONG+3.8% · 5d +0.2%56%31 0.11✓ matches cascade
XOM XOMSHORT-0.9% · 5d -1.3%55%40 0.10✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGLONG+0.4% · 5d -0.1% ↺ fades55%31 0.09·
CVX CVXSHORT-0.6% · 5d -1.0%54%40 0.07✓ matches cascade
30y yield DGS30LONG+2bp · 5d +2bp53%40 0.06✓ matches cascade
Volatility VIXSHORT-1.0% · 5d +1.4% ↺ fades52%33 0.04·

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.