Department stores are shutting hundreds of locations, many of which are anchor tenants in malls.

When the malls lose such huge tenants they can wind up defaulting on debt that has been bundled with other mall loans into a bond called a CMBS.

Investors are betting against the CMBS like they did before the housing crisis, and shares of mall real-estate investment trusts are also falling fast. Losses on the loans are also causing a pullback in new lending creating a downward spiral.

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