Electronics retailer Dick Smith has been put into receivership after its banks refused to keep propping it up following poor sales. The company, which has nearly 400 stores in Australia and New Zealand, said in August it was carrying too much of the wrong type of goods and that, combined with soft consumer demand, meant it was being forced to cut its margins to keep afloat. Since then it has twice warned that it wouldn't make its earnings forecasts - it slashed prices and had big pre-Christmas bargain sales.

Asian markets tumbled on the first day of trading in 2016, with declines so steep in China that authorities halted all mainland trading before the end of the day, The Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts cited a number of reasons for the selling, including China’s disappointing manufacturing data, reported earlier Monday, and the coming removal of a ban on major shareholders from selling stakes, put in place during the summer stock crash. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 6.9%, its biggest decline on record for the first trading day of the year, before trading was halted.

Beijing Capital Tire Co. Ltd. (BCT), producer of the BCT, Jinglun and Autoguard brands, declared bankruptcy in October, a Chinese industry official has confirmed. According to Chinese media reports dated June 25 and Nov. 16, BCT had suspended production since early 2015 and started laying off 1,000 employees, or half of its total staff, about six months ago. BCT, an affiliate of state-owned conglomerate Beijing Capital Group in Beijing, reports having annual capacity of 7.1 million radial car, light truck and medium truck tires at two factories in the Beijing area.

China had one of the best-performing stock markets in the world in 2015. Yet it was a dismal year for Chinese markets, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chinese stocks suffered an unprecedented summer crash that wiped out 43%, or $5 trillion, of their value at one point. That was followed by an abrupt 2% currency devaluation in August that sent shock waves through global markets. Bold reforms seen as crucial to Beijing’s efforts to turn around a slowing economy, such as a modern stock-listing system and lighter capital controls, stalled as the market turmoil unnerved authorities.

China’s slowing growth and a glut of ships have hit earnings for vessels carrying coal and other dry bulk commodities so hard that owners face forced sales, emergency capital raisings and possible bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported. Charter fees are not covering vessels’ operating costs, let alone their financing, in the latest bad news for the many private equity firms that have invested in the sector. Short-term charter rates for Capesize ships — the largest kind — were as low as $4,897 a day on December 23, down from more than $20,000 a day in August.

The People’s Bank of China has suspended at least two foreign banks from conducting some cross-border yuan business until late March, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The clampdown comes as the growing offshore-onshore spread makes it profitable for those who skirt capital controls to buy the currency at a discount in Hong Kong and sell it in Shanghai.

China’s insurance regulators are raising alarms about risks in the industry, warning that aggressive stock buying by insurers and sales of high-return products could damage the country’s financial system, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission has issued at least six statements on risk control since late November, including a demand for better disclosure and limits on the size of high-return products.

Faced with sluggish domestic growth, Japan’s megabanks are expanding their role in financing global mergers and acquisitions, which hit a record level this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Japanese banks have long ranked among the world’s top cross-border lenders, and have lent many billions of dollars to Japanese companies also seeking growth abroad through acquisitions. Now the banks are increasingly financing deals that don't involve their compatriot companies.

Chinese corporate defaults will likely spread next year as borrowing costs climb, financial companies surveyed by Bloomberg said yesterday. All 22 bond traders, analysts and others surveyed forecast China’s corporate default rate will rise in 2016, while over 70 percent expect the extra yield on corporate notes to increase. The premium on five-year AA rated company securities over government notes has risen to 173 basis points after plunging to an eight-year low of 169.2 basis points last month.

Thailand’s newly-minted central bank governor said Monday that the country’s economy is entering a difficult transition, and that he stands ready to tailor the bank’s policies to support more growth while strictly managing price pressures, the Wall Street Journal reported today.