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

What if Chinese rebar prices fall below cash cost and export steel deflation globally?

Chinese rebar and HRC prices fall below cash cost as property starts collapse, exporting steel deflation globally and triggering EU/US anti-dumping and idled-capacity stress in Western mills.

11%
our model probability
over 6–18 months
prediction markets — wisdom of the crowd
loading live odds…
Empirically anchored 11% · 90% range 2–20% · 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 12% of the class10%
Pooled · weight 87%11%
Crowd — no liquid market
Reserve 3% · no extremizing (×1.0)11%
Published11%

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. Chinese rebar and HRC prices fall below cash cost as property starts collapse, exporting steel deflation globally and triggering EU/US anti-dumping and idled-capacity stress in Western mills. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — China growth ▼ · 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
1Freeport (copper) FCX 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.4%
hist -6.29–+1.37% · other way +8.32% (n=11)
2Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chartIndex▼ -1.2%
hist -0.74–-0.4% · other way +1.81% (n=11)
3Alibaba BABAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.1%
hist -1.74–+0.12% · other way -5.17% (n=8)
4Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -1.0%
hist -1.05–-0.18% · other way +2.75% (n=11)
5Copper XCUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCommodity▼ -0.9%
hist -2.24–+0.21% · other way -0.19% (n=11)
6Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -2.07–+0.29% · other way +10.49% (n=11)
7Tech sector XLK 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -0.55–-0.14% · other way +2.57% (n=11)
8TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.8%
hist -1.16–+0.03% · other way +4.87% (n=11)
9Chinese yuan CNY 📈 chartFX▼ -0.7%
hist -0.63–-0.14% · other way -0.17% (n=10)
10Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chartCrypto▼ -0.7%
hist -8.71–+3.09% · other way -8.23% (n=8)
11China internet KWEBon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -3.35–+0.57% · other way -1.46% (n=8)
12AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -1.91–+0.38% · other way +7.06% (n=11)
13Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -0.64–+0.25% · other way +2.05% (n=9)
14Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chartEquity▼ -0.7%
hist -2.68–+0.73% · other way +7.93% (n=11)

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): Freeport (copper) -1.4% · Tech sector -0.8% · Chinese yuan -0.7% · Aussie dollar -0.6% · Turkish lira -0.2% · Indian rupee -0.2%

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 Chinese yuan breaks 7 per dollar; US names China manipulator 2019-08 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 US and China agree Geneva tariff truce, slashing rates 2025-05 ASML bookings-miss crash 2024-10 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 Offshore yuan hits a record low 2022-11 China fires ballistic missiles into Japan's EEZ during Taiwan drills 2022-08 Alibaba upsizes buyback to record $25 billion 2022-03 Kaisa Group offshore default 2021-12 Evergrande debt crisis - global selloff 2021-09 Didi removed from China app stores after NYSE IPO 2021-07 Bitcoin May 2021 crash 2021-05 Copper tops $10,000 a tonne for the first time since 2011 2021-04 Gold closes above $2,000/oz for the first time 2020-08 Apple cuts revenue guidance on China weakness 2019-01 US List 3 tariffs on $200B of Chinese goods finalized 2018-09 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 North Korea sixth nuclear test 2017-09 North Korea 'fire and fury' nuclear scare 2017-08 Mexican peso crash on Trump 2016 win 2016-11 China stock-market circuit-breaker fiasco 2016-01 August 24, 2015 ETF flash crash 2015-08 China's PBOC reveals 57% jump in gold reserves after six-year silence 2015-07 Shanghai A-share bubble peak / crash begins 2015-06 Gold futures velocity-logic flash crash 2014-01 Gold all-time peak of $1,921/oz 2011-09 Egyptian revolution / Mubarak uprising 2011-01 Copper crashes to ~$1.30/lb as 2008 crisis crushes China demand 2008-12 China 4 trillion yuan stimulus 2008-11 October 27, 1997 mini-crash 1997-10 Asian financial crisis - Thai baht float 1997-07 Soviet August coup attempt against Gorbachev 1991-08
AssetHistory saysAbnormal (20d · 5d)HitnConfidencevs cascade
INTC INTCSHORT-2.9% · 5d -1.7%71%40 0.36✓ matches cascade
ETH ETHSHORT-5.1% · 5d -6.7%68%25 0.31✓ matches cascade
XPT XPTSHORT-0.5% · 5d +0.6% ↺ fades68%37 0.30✓ matches cascade
KWEB KWEBSHORT-2.7% · 5d -2.1%67%33 0.29✓ matches cascade
TRY TRYSHORT-1.2% · 5d -0.1%69%37 0.29✓ matches cascade
XCU XCUSHORT-1.6% · 5d -0.8%66%37 0.28✓ matches cascade
COIN COINSHORT-6.0% · 5d -2.3%63%18 0.22✓ matches cascade
FCX FCXSHORT-5.1% · 5d -1.9%62%39 0.21✓ matches cascade
QCOM QCOMSHORT-3.1% · 5d -2.8%64%39 0.21✓ matches cascade
NVDA NVDASHORT-1.5% · 5d -3.1%62%37 0.18✓ matches cascade
SOL SOLSHORT-7.9% · 5d -14.2%60%19 0.15✓ matches cascade
AMD AMDSHORT-1.4% · 5d -1.4%58%40 0.13✓ matches cascade
Bitcoin BTCSHORT-4.2% · 5d -3.9%58%32 0.13✓ matches cascade
High-yield credit HYGSHORT-0.4% · 5d -0.1%58%37 0.13·

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.