Little change in interest rates at US Treasury auction of 3-month, 6-month bills

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction.

The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.025 percent, the same as last week. Another $24 billion in six-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.09 percent, down from 0.105 percent the previous week.

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 percent for the three-month bills and 0.092 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 0.23 percent last week from 0.22 percent the previous week.