🛢 Energy & Commodities risk-off · 6–18 months
A what‑if from the future

What if Niger and Mali coup risk severs French uranium supply?

Sahel instability disrupts Orano's uranium exports, removing a key European supply line and forcing utilities to chase scarce pounds in an already tight market.

21%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 21% · 90% range 2–40% · 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 50% of the class22%
Pooled · weight 87%22%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)22%
Published21%

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. Sahel instability disrupts Orano's uranium exports, removing a key European supply line and forcing utilities to chase scarce pounds in an already tight market. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Clean-energy abundance ▲ · Geopolitical risk ▲ · Industrial demand ▲ · 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
1Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartVol▲ +5.1%
hist +1.74–+2.94% · other way -3.22% (n=6)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -2.0%
hist -1.27–-0.71% · other way -1.41% (n=7)
3Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -0.93–-0.42% · other way +0.01% (n=5)
4S&P 500 SPXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.1%
hist -0.58–+0.85% · other way -1.22% (n=12)
5Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -0.81–-0.21% · other way -1.22% (n=5)
6MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.9%
hist -2.9–+7.7% · other way +2.69% (n=5)
7Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.8%
hist -3.83–+7.97% · other way +4.83% (n=2)
8Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon HyperliquidCrypto▼ -0.6%
model prior · unmeasured
9Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.6%
hist -0.44–+0.16% · other way +9.99% (n=2)
10Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -0.68–-0.11% · other way -10.84% (n=5)
11Gold XAUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▲ +0.5%
hist -0.13–+1.01% · other way -4.49% (n=5)
12Bitcoin BTCon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.5%
hist -2.2–+3.66% · other way +14.01% (n=2)
13High-yield credit HYG 📈 chartRate▼ -0.6%
hist -0.37–-0.16% · other way -0.73% (n=5)
14Energy sector XLEon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.5%
hist -0.58–+0.46% · other way -9.23% (n=5)

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 gold hedge.
Also moves (not yet on Hyperliquid): Tech sector -1.4% · High-yield credit -0.6% · ExxonMobil -0.4% · Financials -0.4% · Freeport (copper) +0.3% · Lockheed +0.4%

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 Gold tops $3,000 for the first time amid tariff and rate-cut fears 2025-03 Niger coup d'etat 2023-07 PJM grid emergency during Winter Storm Elliott 2022-12 Texas grid failure during Winter Storm Uri 2021-02 WTI crude futures settle negative as demand collapses 2020-04 Saudi-Russia oil price war 2020-03 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Oil collapses from $147 to the $30s as the GFC craters demand 2008-12 Northeast blackout cascading grid failure hits ~55 million 2003-08 Gulf War air campaign begins 1991-01 1986 oil price collapse 1986-02 Gold peaks at $850 1980-01 Iran hostage crisis / US freezes Iranian assets 1979-11 Cuban Missile Crisis 1962-10 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 Israel strikes Iran — Operation Rising Lion 2025-06 China retaliates to Liberation Day: 34% tariffs + rare-earth controls 2025-04 Palladium jumps after US pushes G7 sanctions on Russian metal 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 Ukrainian drone strikes hit Russian refineries, lifting crude and gasoline 2024-03 Gabon coup d'etat 2023-08 Wagner Group mutiny against the Kremlin 2023-06 NIF achieves fusion ignition 2022-12 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage 2022-09 European TTF gas hits all-time record high 2022-08 Tin hits nominal record on LME above $48,000/t 2022-03 Burkina Faso coup d'etat 2022-01 Myanmar military coup 2021-02 Mali coup d'etat 2020-08 California rolling blackouts during a record heatwave 2020-08 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Norilsk Nickel Arctic diesel spill 2020-05
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
SPX SPXLONG+1.1% · 5d +0.3%67%39 0.32⚠ differs
DAL DALLONG+4.4% · 5d +0.8%66%33 0.31✓ matches cascade
QCOM QCOMSHORT-3.1% · 5d -2.4%65%34 0.22✓ matches cascade
COIN COINLONG+11.8% · 5d +1.8%61%21 0.21⚠ differs
MSTR MSTRLONG+7.4% · 5d -3.5% ↺ fades61%34 0.20⚠ differs
UAL UALLONG+5.8% · 5d -0.0% ↺ fades60%33 0.18✓ matches cascade
LMT LMTSHORT-1.0% · 5d -1.0%61%39 0.17⚠ differs
RTX RTXSHORT-1.9% · 5d -1.2%59%39 0.17⚠ differs
NOC NOCSHORT-1.2% · 5d -0.7%58%37 0.15⚠ differs
TSM TSMSHORT-1.0% · 5d -1.4%58%34 0.14✓ matches cascade
FCX FCXLONG+4.0% · 5d +1.1%55%34 0.10✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHLONG+0.4% · 5d -4.4% ↺ fades56%29 0.09⚠ differs
Volatility VIXLONG+0.0% · 5d -2.0% ↺ fades54%36 0.08✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLLONG+8.0% · 5d -6.2% ↺ fades55%28 0.08⚠ differs

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.