Rates fall at weekly US Treasury auction of 3-month, 6-month bills

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

The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.015 percent, down from 0.02 percent last week. Another $24 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.08 percent, down from 0.085 percent last week.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,999.62, while a six-month bill sold for $9,995.96. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.015 percent for the three-month bills and 0.081 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, was unchanged at 0.24 percent, the same as last week.