Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Dash for Cash Pushes Treasury Bill Rates Below Zero

With losses mounting across asset classes, investors retreat to a last haven.

March 18, 2020 at 9:00 PM UTC

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

The scramble is so intense that the price doesn’t matter.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Negative yields have reached America’s shores. Well, sort of.

The rate on one-month U.S. Treasury bills dropped as low as -0.089% on Wednesday, and the rate on those maturing in three months sank 15 basis points to -0.0178%, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Six-month bills came close to dropping below zero, too. This has happened before when the Federal Reserve locks its benchmark near the zero lower bound: the one-month bill reached a record low -0.091% in December 2008 and the three-month touched -0.0508% in October 2015.