So... I'm usually news agnostic as it makes very little difference to me in the short run (I'm in it for the long run), and thus I don't keep myself up to date or attentive at all but this seems too obvious to be a coincidence;
- China says "bitcoin probably alright", price jumps ten fold
- China decides they're through buying USD (read it somewhere, might have read it wrong)
- China says "bitcoin is somewhat illegal, you have a short timespan to get out", everyone sells, price drops
Now, if it was me I would say 'China says' is a great market direction trigger, and if I were China (govmnt) I would buy as it drops (sure, it's illegal... for the common people) and then by CNY say "good news, bitcoin's probably alright again", thus re-inflating all the coins bought cheap.
Is it not just a tad bit too obvious?
Those crafty chinese. Well we'll see where it goes. Right now BTC-e is at $662 and Gox is at $722