Rates on US Treasury Bills Rise at Weekly Auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday’s auction, with rates on three-month bills climbing to their highest level since late March.

The Treasury Department auctioned $25 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.040 percent, up from 0.025 percent last week. Another $23 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.065 percent, up from 0.050 percent last week.

The three-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 0.045 percent on March 31. The six-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 0.070 percent on June 16.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,998.99, while a six-month bill sold for $9,996.70. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.041 percent for the three-month bills and 0.066 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 0.11 percent last week from 0.10 percent the previous week.

This article appeared in print in the July 1st, 2014 edition of Hamodia.