Commodities staged a broad retreat on Thursday as a parade of confidence-sapping economic news prompted investors to move away from riskier assets.

Energy, base metals and agricultural commodities all suffered after disappointing US employment data showed a full-scale recovery in the world’s largest economy was still a distant prospect. That, coupled with news that unemployment in the eurozone had reached a 10-year high in May, saw the US dollar strengthen, which lessened the appeal of the vast majority of commodities denominated in the greenback.