AP PHOTOS: A family in Argentina scavenges for survival

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Deep inside the dumpsters of Buenos Aires, Elías Fernández, 27, sifts through for a living. A construction worker who lost his job in November and now sleeps with his children on the floor of a friend’s apartment, Fernández – often accompanied by his teenage daughters, Morena and Valentina, and his wide-eyed toddler son Juan — is a full-time scavenger.

The Fernández family is part of a vast underground economy that has swelled as libertarian President Javier Milei plows ahead with Argentina’s most intense austerity scheme in recent history.

Although the nation’s official statistics agency reported Monday a decline in poverty in the second half of 2024, many Argentines have yet to feel the promised benefits of the economic reforms.

Like legions of other families, Fernández and his children beg for food and spend their days collecting scraps of cardboard, pieces of metal or strands of wire — hauling them on a rented cart to sell to a local recycler.

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Elias Fernandez, a construction worker who lost his job last year, dumpster-dives for recyclable items to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Morena Vallejo presents her mother Soledad with flowers that a vendor gave her as a birthday gift while begging with her father and brother, and collecting recyclables items to sell, upon returning to the home of a family friend where they are staying, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Morena Vallejo holds bouquets of flowers given to her by a vendor as a birthday gift, as she commutes home with her father and brother after a day of begging and collecting recyclables items to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Juan Fernandez, sitting on top of a pile of cardboards collected by his father to sell to a recycling facility, holds onto a 1000 pesos banknote, given to him by a woman walking past who complimented him and told him he should be in school, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Morena Vallejo, who has not learned to read and write, stops to browse through a book after begging for spare change inside a bookstore, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez and his son Juan look out a train window as they commute home after a day of begging and collecting recyclables items to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez, right, celebrates his 28th birthday at a friend’s house where he and his family are staying, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, March 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez loads a bathtub onto his recycling cart while his son Juan sits in a car seat, both items they found on the side of the road while on their recycling rounds, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez, center, and his son Juan hold onto to their containers as they wait in line to receive free food from a soup kitchen in the Carlos Mugica neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Juan Fernandez reaches up to touch a bouquet of flowers given by a vendor to his stepsister Morena Vallejo as a birthday gift, while accompanying their father to search for recyclable items to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez, a construction worker who lost his job last year, sleeps with his family in the living room of a friend’s house, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez and his stepdaughter Morena break down cardboard boxes they have collected to sell to a local recycling facility, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez pulls the cart he rents to collect recyclables to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez leans on a table as he begins his day in a friend’s apartment where he and his family are staying, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Pedestrians walk past as Elias Fernandez, right, makes his rounds in search of recyclable items to sell, accompanied by his children Morena and Juan, outside a grocery store in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Morena Vallejo watches over her stepbrother Juan napping on a pile of cardboard in their father’s cart that he rents for collecting recyclables to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elias Fernandez, accompanied by his son Juan, pulls the cart he uses to collect recyclables to sell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares nosedived on Monday after the meltdown Friday on Wall Street over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff hikes and the backlash from Beijing.

U.S. futures also signaled further weakness. The future for the S&P 500 lost 4.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 3.5%. The future for the Nasdaq lost 5.3%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 tumbled more than 6%.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.4%.

Oil prices sank further, with U.S. benchmark crude down 4%, or $2.50, at $59.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $2.25 to $63.33 a barrel.

On Friday, Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear. The S&P 500 plummeted 6% and the Dow plunged 5.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 5.8%.

The losses came after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced last week, upping the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, usually the economic highlight of each month, wasn't enough to stop the slide.

So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell Friday. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for economic growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide on worries the trade war will weaken the global economy.

China’s response to U.S. tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China with its own 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, among other measures.

The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies.

The central question looking ahead is: Will the trade war cause a global recession? If it does, stock prices may need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down 17.4% from its record set in February.

Trump seemed unfazed. From Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, he headed to his golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH.”

The Federal Reserve could cushion the blow of tariffs on the economy by cutting interest rates, which can encourage companies and households to borrow and spend. But the Fed may have less freedom to move than it would like.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that tariffs could drive up expectations for inflation and lower rates could fuel still more price increases.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.

Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is holding onto hope that Trump will lower the tariffs after prying “wins” from other countries following negotiations.

Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States, are worth it.

On Wall Street, stocks of companies that do lots of business in China fell to some of the sharpest losses.

DuPont dropped 12.7% after China said its regulators are launching an anti-trust investigation into DuPont China group, a subsidiary of the chemical giant. It’s one of several measures targeting American companies and in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs.

GE Healthcare got 12% of its revenue last year from the China region, and it fell 16%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell, but they pared their drops following Powell’s cautious statements about inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.01% from 4.06% late Thursday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. It had gone below 3.90% in the morning.

US President Donald Trump appears on a television screen at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

A screen displays financial news as traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)