IMO in a low volume market like Bitcoin Gox have set up their trade engine to produce at least minimum information per minute to keep the line going if there is no trading. Mostly this never happens at 100%, but is mingled with small trades.
The engine essentially indicates the spread between buy and sell in this case.
The adjustment of asks and bids (in combination with trades) creates the uptrend you are seeing, but this is normal and is caused by a combination of perpetual robotic and regular human adjustments of bids. This is market sentiment - the sum feeling of all investors!
Does that make sense? Please let me know if you think I've got something wrong because I've never actually talked to anyone from Gox about this!
Makes sense, yes. Thanks for the posting!