The US Treasury auctioned off $92 billion in 3-month bills and $79 billion in 6-month bills on September 8, bringing the combined haul to $171 billion in a single day of short-term debt issuance. The 13-week bills landed at a yield of roughly 3.8%, while the 26-week bills came in near 3.885%, with only about 20.33% of bids awarded at the high rate on the shorter-dated paper.
Short-term Treasury yields have been remarkably stable over the past several weeks, oscillating between 3.7% and 4.0% throughout August and into September 2026. Bid-to-cover ratios for recent auctions have hovered between 2.6x and 3.0x, meaning investors collectively offered to buy 2.6 to 3.0 times more than the Treasury was offering.
These auctions use a uniform-price Dutch format, meaning every winning bidder pays the same yield regardless of what they individually offered. This structure encourages broader participation because bidders don’t get penalized for bidding aggressively.
Primary dealers, the handful of major financial institutions required to participate in every Treasury auction, form the backbone of demand. But they’re joined by direct bidders (typically large institutional investors submitting their own orders) and indirect bidders (often foreign central banks and international institutions routing bids through dealers). Retail investors can also participate through TreasuryDirect, the government’s platform for individual buyers.
With 13-week bills at 3.8% and 26-week bills at 3.885%, the gap is minimal, roughly 8.5 basis points for an extra three months of commitment. That compressed spread implies the market doesn’t expect rates to move meaningfully over the next quarter.