Rates at weekly US Treasury bill auction unchanged for both 3-month and 6-month bills

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

The Treasury Department auctioned $29 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.030 percent, unchanged from last week. Another $25 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.050 percent, also the same as last week.

The rate on three-month bills for this week and last week was the highest since these bills were at 0.040 percent on June 30.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,999.24 while a six-month bill sold for $9,997.47. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.030 percent for the three-month bills and 0.051 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 0.10 percent last week from 0.11 percent the previous week.