Welcome back, GoldBuzzers.

The Supreme Court just handed down its biggest economic ruling in years, President Trump fired back within hours, and precious metals caught all the safe-haven flows.

Today, I'm breaking down what it means for gold and silver - plus I spoke with my contact at Sprott Money to find out what's really happening at the dealer level. Spoiler: the January chaos is finally clearing, and the big money is repositioning.

Ok. Let’s get into it!

Gold & Silver Close Strong as SCOTUS Shakes Up Trade Policy

It was a big week for metals. Gold blasted up over $100 on Friday - after the Supreme Court delivered a historic 6-3 smackdown of President Trump's emergency tariffs, calling them flat-out illegal under IEEPA. The initial dollar selloff was catnip for bullion, but don't get too comfortable: The President wasted no time firing back, announcing a new 10% global tariff via executive order (since bumped to 15%) and calling certain justices "a disgrace."

Meanwhile, Silver outperformed again, climbing back toward $85 as it continues its wild February recovery after that brutal blowoff from January's highs. The safe-haven bid isn't going anywhere with two US carrier groups now parked in the Gulf and the US warning Iran has "10 to 15 days" to cut a deal. Between the tariff chaos, sticky inflation, and the Middle East powder keg, precious metals are finishing the week exactly where you'd expect: firmly in the spotlight.

I caught up with Andrew Sleigh on Friday night, my contact at Sprott Money, one of North America’s largest bullion dealers. If you've been reading these updates, you know he's the guy who tells us what's actually happening at the dealer level.

And he had plenty to say.

The Day Nobody Expected

Let's start with Friday. Options expiry for GLD and SLV. Chinese New Year markets still closed. Pretty much every chart analyst out there was calling for a slam. Even Andrew admitted he expected a down week.

Instead? Silver ripped higher, finishing the day up $8.

"It's fooled everybody this week, like it seems to do all the time," he told me, still sounding half-amazed.

And yet - gold is up 7% over the past month. Silver? Still down 8% over the past month, even after Friday's fireworks. That gap between gold and silver is crazy, and it won't last forever.

The January Flood Has Subsided

Remember when I told you about the record buybacks Sprott was dealing with? People who'd held silver for 10 or 15 years finally cashing out, flooding the market with product?

It got so bad that wholesalers were offering no bid on 1,000-ounce bars. Think about that for a second. Dealers refusing to buy silver at any price because they had too much of it.

That's turning around now. Starting Monday, Sprott is improving their buyback premiums - which tells you the wholesale glut is getting soaked up. All that product that flooded in during January is finally working through the pipeline.

Sprott’s sales numbers are pretty jaw-dropping too. January came in at $25 million - beating December's already record-breaking $20 million - and on top of that, they were processing the largest volume of buybacks in the company's history. No wonder the whole industry has been backlogged.

Meanwhile, he's got several big clients sitting on six figures looking to get back in over the next couple of weeks - buying in thirds, keeping some dry powder for the COMEX delivery window. All long-term holders, not fresh money. People who've been through the dips before and know the drill. Even some of the newer buyers who got caught at the January highs are coming back for more rather than running away.

20,000 Extra Maples?

This one surprised me. Sprott scored a second allocation from the Royal Canadian Mint this month - an extra 20,000 silver maple coins. That almost never happens.

Andrew reckons the mint might have been sitting on excess production because U.S. demand dropped off after the crash. Good news either way. But he added: the moment buying picks up again, the pressure comes right back.

Oh, and the mint has raised its premiums three times already this year. Normally that happens once. Draw your own conclusions.

People Are Leaving - With Their Metal

Andrew mentioned two of his big clients this week, who are leaving Canada altogether. They both sold all their metals, wired the money overseas, and are buying again when they land. Between just those two? Four to five million dollars gone just this week.

When people with serious money are physically relocating their wealth out of the country, that tells you something very significant, and it’s happening in other countries too.

The Calm Before…?

February has been quiet, and honestly, everyone needed it. Andrew said the last three days were the calmest in three months. The phone is still ringing, but not like it was - for the previous ten weeks, he said it was non-stop.

He thinks this is a good time for people to get their ducks in a row, especially with the COMEX delivery period approaching and PDAC (Canada's massive mining conference) kicking off next weekend.

What the Signals Say

Andrew has been following the Theseus research, and as I prepare to launch GoldBuzz Insider, I’ve been sharing the signals with him. While Gold has been in a very strong upward channel, Silver is the interesting one. The signals flipped bearish at the end of January, but as of Friday morning, Andrew noted that they were showing just 5-6 days to a potential switch back to bullish. After Friday's move? We could be even closer.

Bottom Line

The January panic is fading. The wholesale flood that choked the market? Getting soaked up. And the people who actually handle the metal every day are raising their buy prices again - because they know what's coming next.

Whether that's next week or next month, I like what I'm seeing.

One More Thing - Andrew will be at PDAC, the biggest annual conference for the Gold and Silver mining industry. If you’re going to be in Toronto between March 1st-4th, stop by the Sprott Money booth and tell him you’re a GoldBuzz subscriber.

That’s all for this Sunday, folks! I’ll see you on Tuesday.

Before you go, please take a moment to rate today’s GoldBuzz and tell us how we did.

Rick Adams
Founder, GoldBuzz
rick@goldbuzz.com