Rates Mixed at Weekly US Treasury Bill Auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday’s auction, with rates on three-month bills unchanged while rates on six-month bills rose to the highest level in five weeks.

The Treasury Department auctioned $30 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.045 percent. That’s unchanged from last week. Another $25 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.085 percent, up from 0.080 percent last week.

The six-month rate was the highest since these bills averaged 0.090 percent on April 15.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,998.86, while a six-month bill sold for $9,995.70. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.046 percent for the three-month bills and 0.086 percent 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 0.12 percent last week from 0.11 percent the previous week.

This article appeared in print in the May 21st, 2013 edition of Hamodia.