Rates on short-term Treasury bills mixed at weekly auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with rates on six-month bills increasing while rates on three-month bills were unchanged from last week.

The Treasury Department auctioned $42 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.285 percent, unchanged from last week. Another $36 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.435 percent, up from 1.415 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 $9,967.52 while a six-month bill sold for $9,927.45. That would equal an annualized rate of 1.307 percent for the three-month bills and 1.466 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 1.61 percent on Friday, little changed from 1.62 percent at the beginning of the week on Nov. 20.