Rates on short-term bills fall at weekly US Treasury

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday's auction with rates on three-month bills dipping to their lowest level since early May.

The Treasury Department auctioned $40 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.250 percent, down from 0.305 percent last week. Another $36 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.426 percent, down from 0.500 percent last week.

The three-month rate was the lowest since those bills averaged 0.240 percent on May 9. The six-month rate was the lowest since those bills averaged 0.395 percent on Aug. 1.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,993.68, while a six-month bill sold for $9,978.77. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.254 percent for the three-month bills and 0.427 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 0.60 percent last week from 0.61 percent the previous week.