It was only a few weeks ago that the U.S. dollar was hitting 15-month lows. Now, for the first time since March, the dollar bulls are out in force and giving a boost to gold, oil and copper exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Investors are putting their bets on the recovery of the U.S. economy, now that the recovery is showing signs of sustainability. As a result, investors turned bullish on the dollar for the first time since March, reports Chris Fournier for Bloomberg. [Which currency ETFs are there when the time is right to get in?]

The world’s primary reserve currency will rise over the next six months, according to respondents in the Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index. [ETF winners and losers when dollar is weak.]

While the dollar looked for its direction:

• Spot gold prices began trading 0.7% higher
• Copper prices gained more than 1%
• Crude oil prices traded around $71 today after rising for the first time in 10 days on a report that U.S. factories churned out more goods in November than expected, reports Commodity Online. [More on November's retail sales.]

For more stories about commodities, visit our commodity category.

ETFs that are moving on this news:

• PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Bullish (NYSEArca: UUP): down 7.7% year-to-date

• iPath Dow Jones Copper Index (NYSEArca: JJC): up 119.2% year-to-date

• SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD): up 27.4% year-to-date

• United States Oil (NYSEArca: USO): up 8.6% year-to-date

Tags: Base Metals, Commodity ETFs, Copper, Currency ETFs, Energy, ETN, GLD, Gold, Industrial Metals, JJC, Oil, Precious Metals, U.S. Dollar, USO, UUP