Whitehouse Gary Cohn is planning to resign, risk off markets back in play

Due to the opposition on tariffs on steel that Trump proposed last week, Whitehouse Gary Cohn is planning to resign. 

The headlines appeared in the New York Times saying that Cohn plans to resign on the back of his free-trade views clashing with Trump's threatened metal tariffs and USD/JPY fell off a cliff instantly on the news. 

This follows repeated headlines that there are many Republicans who are concerned about the US president's plan to impose tariffs on metals, with the party's top lawmaker calling for it to be scrapped. Last week, US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also expressed his concerns when he said that he was "extremely worried" about the impact of a trade war, adding that it could undermine economic gains.

Trump pushed back during a White House meeting yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, "We're not backing down," adding that he does not think there is going to be a trade war. However, in the background, there are hints that Trump can envisage such an outcome considering press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders's remarks when she said yesterday that Trump was "very confident" the US would win any trade war.