US sells 8-week bills at a high rate of 3.990%, B/C 2.76x; sells 4-week bills at a high rate of 3.850%, B/C 2.61x

The conventional read runs through bid-to-cover against the recent auction average, the size of any tail versus the when-issued level, and indirect and dealer takedowns, with weak demand historically showing up first in concession at the belly of the bill curve rather than in the headline rate. A spread between the two tenors of this kind is normal term-structure behaviour inside the front end and carries little signal on its own; what has tended to matter is a persistent pattern of tails across successive weekly sales, which in past episodes has flagged saturation of dealer balance sheets or a shift in cash demand around tax dates and debt-ceiling episodes. Worth watching is whether subsequent auctions at the same tenors show deteriorating coverage or rising dealer awards, and how supply interacts with any announced changes in bill issuance from the Treasury's refunding statements. As a single print, this is plumbing rather than signal.