Treasury bills hit highest rate in nearly a decade

Herald staff

WASHINGTON — Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday’s auction with the rate on three-month bills hitting the highest level in nearly a decade.

The Treasury Department auctioned three-month bills at a discount rate of 6.160 percent. Six-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 6.050 percent.

The three-month rate was up from 6.080 percent last week; the six-month rate was up from 5.990 percent. The discount rates understate the actual return to investors — 6.344 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,844.30 and 6.328 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,694.10.

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The Federal Reserve also said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, the most popular index for changing adjustable rate mortgages, edged down to 5.94 percent last week from 5.98 percent the previous week.

Monday prices: Gold sold for $271.45, silver sold for $4.835 and platinum sold for $601.50.

Kodak shuffle: Eastman Kodak Co. is shuffling executives, consolidating departments and focusing on new endeavors aimed at driving growth in digital technologies. The changes were made to ensure that new products are introduced at a faster pace and to improve customer relations, said Daniel A. Carp, Kodak’s president and chief executive officer.

Lucent axes exec: Lucent Technologies Inc. fired its top executive on Monday after warning for an astonishing fourth time this year that profits will be weak despite booming demand for network equipment to expand and upgrade the Internet. Richard McGinn will be replaced as chairman and chief executive temporarily by Henry Schacht, a former Lucent chairman who will head the search for a new leader.