us stocks looked set to open lower on thursday as futures added to their losses after david tepper said he expected stocks to continue falling in the new year on wednesday the dow jones industrial average rose 527 points or 16 to 33376 the sp 500 increased 57 points or 149 to 3878 and the nasdaq composite gained 162 points or 154 to 10709 stock futures added to their losses thursday after appaloosa managements tepper said he would lean short on stocks and bonds his comments seemed to overshadow another raft of strong economic data including a revised reading on thirdquarter gross domestic product which showed the us economy expanded more quickly than previously believed a day earlier the conference boards consumer confidence survey came in at an eightmonth high which helped stoke a rally in stocks initially spurred by strong earnings from nike inc and fedex corp released tuesday evening this optimistic outlook helped stocks clinch their best daily performance in three weeks volumes are starting to dry up as the year winds down making markets more susceptible to bigger moves according to dow jones market data wednesday saw the least combined volume on major exchanges since nov 29 many market strategists are positioned defensively as they expect stocks could tumble to fresh lows in the new year see wall streets stockmarket forecasts for 2022 were off by the widest margin since 2008 will next year be any different even if we see some further recovery due to holidaythin liquidity or endofyear portfolio rebalancing next week stocks could resume their slide at the turn of the year said charalampos pissouros senior investment analyst at xm