Rates on US Treasury bills mixed at weekly auction with 3-month bills dipping to 3-month low

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with rates on six-month bills unchanged while rates on three-month bills dropped to the lowest level since October.

The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.020 percent, down from 0.025 percent last week. Another $24 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.075 percent, the same as last week.

The three-month rate was the lowest since three-month bills averaged 0.010 percent on Oct. 14.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,999.49, while a six-month bill sold for $9,996.21. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.020 percent for the three-month bills and 0.076 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 down to 0.17 percent last week from 0.18 percent the previous week.