USD Index rose 0.32% to 99.53 while S&P 500 fell 0.74%, pressuring commodity prices with lithium carbonate down 2.99% to 25134.89 USD/t, nickel down 2.17% to 18797.88 USD/t and copper down 2.60% to 6.4765 USD/lb. The stronger dollar and equity weakness signal risk-off flows that weighed on battery and base metals overnight. Konkola Copper Mines began a scheduled 60-day shutdown of the Nchanga Smelter in Zambia on June 3 for maintenance, removing an estimated 150ktpa copper capacity from the market during the outage period with no force majeure declared. Vedanta Resources’ Zambian operations face direct output loss while First Quantum Minerals and other Central African copper producers may see spot price support from the curtailment. ASX-listed copper names such as Sandfire Resources and 29Metals remain most exposed to any sustained LME price recovery from the Zambian smelter downtime, whereas lithium producers like Pilbara Minerals and Allkem face continued pressure from the 1.35% drop in SC6 to 2493 USD/t amid absent fresh demand signals.