What if the PBOC devalues the yuan past 7.5 to the dollar?
A managed-yuan break past 7.5 exports deflation and triggers an Asian-FX domino: the cleanest trade is short copper and China megacaps as the devaluation signals demand weakness, with an AUD and KRW/TWD selloff alongside. Direct rhyme is the August 2015 CNY 'reform' devaluation and the August 2019 break of 7 that earned the manipulator label and a global risk-off. Forward: a weaker starting growth base means deflation export bites trade partners harder than 2015.
how we built this number — every step
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.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a mixed shock. The PBOC engineers a sharp managed-yuan devaluation past 7.5, exporting deflation and triggering an Asian-FX domino selloff. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — China growth ▼ · 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.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.5% hist -2.41–+0.11% · other way -2.98% (n=12) |
| 2 | Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▼ -1.5% hist -1.79–-0.09% · other way -0.31% (n=12) |
| 3 | Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.5% hist -1.45–-0.27% · other way +2.49% (n=12) |
| 4 | Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.3% hist -3.5–+0.23% · other way +4.56% (n=12) |
| 5 | TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.2% hist -0.81–-0.21% · other way +3.61% (n=12) |
| 6 | Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.2% hist -4.43–+1.18% · other way +0.86% (n=12) |
| 7 | Chinese yuan CNY 📈 chart | FX | ▼ -1.1% hist -1.03–-0.16% · other way -0.75% (n=12) |
| 8 | Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Commodity | ▼ -0.9% hist -1.19–-0.04% · other way +3.0% (n=12) |
| 9 | Tech sector XLK 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.0% hist -0.74–-0.29% · other way -0.23% (n=12) |
| 10 | AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.0% hist -3.78–+1.04% · other way +0.08% (n=12) |
| 11 | Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.0% hist -0.78–+0.04% · other way +1.53% (n=12) |
| 12 | Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.0% hist -4.93–+1.32% · other way +3.77% (n=12) |
| 13 | Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.0% hist -2.92–+0.76% · other way +1.1% (n=12) |
| 14 | ASML ASMLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.9% hist -1.28–+0.01% · other way -1.52% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Why we may diverge from history
Trust the cascade short on AVGO: the +7.1% history is all clustered in April-2025 tariff windows where AI-capex demand swamped the China-deflation channel — a single contaminated regime, not signal.
Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did
Across 28 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.
| Asset | History says | Abnormal (20d · 5d) | Hit | n | Confidence | vs cascade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA NVDA | SHORT | -2.5% · 5d -2.2% | 73% | 23 | 0.34 | ✓ matches cascade |
| ETH ETH | SHORT | -7.3% · 5d -9.5% | 70% | 19 | 0.34 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Volatility VIX | SHORT | -1.7% · 5d -0.3% | 67% | 25 | 0.30 | · |
| KWEB KWEB | SHORT | -2.5% · 5d -2.4% | 65% | 23 | 0.27 | ✓ matches cascade |
| INTC INTC | SHORT | -2.9% · 5d -3.1% | 64% | 27 | 0.25 | ✓ matches cascade |
| SOL SOL | SHORT | -14.2% · 5d -19.8% | 67% | 13 | 0.24 | ✓ matches cascade |
| QCOM QCOM | SHORT | -3.8% · 5d -2.5% | 63% | 25 | 0.21 | ✓ matches cascade |
| XCU XCU | SHORT | -0.7% · 5d -1.4% | 62% | 23 | 0.20 | ✓ matches cascade |
| TRY TRY | SHORT | -0.8% · 5d -0.1% | 62% | 23 | 0.19 | ✓ matches cascade |
| BABA BABA | SHORT | -1.5% · 5d -3.7% | 60% | 23 | 0.18 | ✓ matches cascade |
| CNY CNY | SHORT | -0.4% · 5d -0.3% | 58% | 23 | 0.16 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AUD AUD | SHORT | -0.6% · 5d -0.5% | 60% | 23 | 0.16 | ✓ matches cascade |
| MU MU | SHORT | -4.1% · 5d -3.5% | 59% | 27 | 0.15 | ✓ matches cascade |
| US dollar DXY | LONG | +0.2% · 5d -0.2% ↺ fades | 59% | 27 | 0.15 | ✓ matches cascade |
Why this probability
PBOC manages gradually; deliberate sharp break past 7.5 risks capital flight, kept on leash. A base‑rate‑anchored prior, continuously scored against what actually happens — not a forecast.