LONDON (Reuters) -Harvard University’s bonds, which are part of the Ivy League school’s $8.2 billion debt pile, struggled on Friday amid an increasingly fraught standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
The university sued the administration over a move on Thursday to revoke its ability to enrol lucrative foreign students.
Its bond prices have been falling sharply since March when the U.S. Education Department sent letters to 60 U.S. universities, including Harvard, warning them of cuts in federal funding unless they addressed allegations of antisemitism.
Friday’s moves were modest but included Harvard’s 3.15% 2046 bond dropping to a near-record low 66.5 cents on the dollar, effectively a discount of a third on its face value.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who ordered the termination of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification on Thursday, accused the Boston institution of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”
In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, Harvard called the revocation a “blatant violation” of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws, saying it had an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.
(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Richard Chang)
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