WASHINGTON – Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday’s auction with rates on three-month bills unchanged and rates on six-month bills rising to their highest level in 10 months.
The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.025 per cent, the same as last week. Another $26 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.090 per cent, up from 0.075 per cent last week.
The six-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 0.110 per cent on Feb. 10.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,999.37, while a six-month bill sold for $9,995.45. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.025 per cent for the three-month bills and 0.091 per cent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, edged up to 0.15 per cent last week from 0.14 per cent the previous week.
