Funny money: Credit card rewards are the new social currency. Citibank customers can now use Facebook to pool their rewards points online. The bank is today launching a Facebook application that lets users team up to use their points, whether it’s for charity, a group gift or a personal goal. Citi says it’s the first bank to offer such a feature. The app builds on a service Citi introduced last year that lets customers transfer points to one another on the bank’s homepage. After getting feedback, executives decided to expand the rewards-sharing capability and offer it through social media. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
Tweet street: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has rung in the New Year with a new Twitter account that includes praise for Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and opinions on President Barack Obama’s policies and the Steve Jobs biography. By Monday night—just two days after he started his Twitter account—the 80-year-old chief of News Corp had already issued more than 20 tweets and acquired 74,000 followers. Teri Everett, a spokeswoman for News Corp, confirmed the Twitter account here is Murdoch’s. Read the full story from Reuters here.
Bullish beginning: Stocks are jumping higher on the first trading day of 2012. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 200 points, or 1.7%, to 12,423 in the first minutes of trading today. The S&P 500 rose 23, or 1.8%, to 1,280. The Nasdaq rose 55, or 2.1%, to 2,660. Solid economic news, notably out of China, is helping mute concerns over the European debt crisis. Europe’s debt woes will likely remain the main catalyst for markets over the coming weeks. In the absence of fresh bad news out of Europe, trading in 2012 got off to a solid start. Surveys showing that China and India may be picking up momentum also sent stocks higher in Europe and Asia. An index measuring manufacturing in China rose in December.
