Rates mixed at weekly US Treasury bill auction

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with rates on three-month bills dropping to the lowest level in nearly a year while rates on six-month bills were unchanged.

The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.015 percent, down from 0.020 percent last week. Another $23 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.045 percent, unchanged from last week.

The three-month rate was the lowest since those bills averaged 0.010 percent on Sept. 30, 2013.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,999.62 while a six-month bill sold for $9,997.73. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.015 percent for the three-month bills and 0.046 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.