U.S. 6-month T-bill auction has lowest yield ever

NEW YORK, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said its auction of 6-month bills on Monday brought the lowest yield ever for the maturity, underscoring continued investor demand for the lowest risk assets.

The high yield in the $27 billion sale of the bills was 0.250 percent. Yields on U.S. Treasury debt move inversely to price, and the comparatively low yield underscored to analysts the continued appetite for safe-haven investments.

"There is demand for these (safe-haven) instruments," said George Goncalves, chief Treasury/TIPS and agency strategist with Morgan Stanley in New York, adding "(the yield) is noteworthy from a historical perspective, but you also have to put it in perspective of the time period that we are in right now."

The previous auction of six-month bills, on Dec. 22, brought a high yield of 0.285 percent.

Six-month bill yields on the open market US6MT=RR were trading near 0.19 percent on Monday, down from just above 5 percent in August 2007, according to Reuters data.

The Treasury first began issuing 6-month bills in the mid-1930s, according to Joyce Harris, spokeswoman for the Treasury.

For full details of the 6-month auction on Monday click on [ID:nTAR000974]. (Reporting by Chris Reese; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )