It's at least a slow move upwards
look at the graph!
the graph is bad
http://www.bitcoincharts.com/Blocks 341041
Total BTC 13.776M
Difficulty 41272873895
Estimated 42451496807 in 1679 blks
Network total 376099.749 Thash/s
Blocks/hour 7.64 / 471 s -------------- very high number.
http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin.png this chart shows us back to 325 hash rate.
this means someone (bitfury?) could have turned off 50ph last adjustment to create a 6% drop and now has turned it back on since the diff will stay low for 11 -12 days.
A big player owning marginal 1 watt gear may do this for the next few jumps. If my 1 watt gear loses money at a diff of 45 and I shut it off dropping diff to 41. then power on I get a 11-13 day profit zone.
Many people have talked about this for years I never saw a good reason to do it. Now the reasons and conditions exist.
They will continue to exist until that big player or players :
A) replaces all his/their 1 watt gear.
B) the btc price -- diff ratio shifts a lot.
C) many others keep buying the newer .5 watt gear making it impossible for the clap on clap off method for big player or players.
This pattern could set up again when the s-3's get in that clap on clap off area of earnings.
If you are ahead of the curve-------------all .5 watt per gh gear and/or 2 cent power this is okay you will earn some btc over power cost.