The stock market broadly has been rising faster than corporate profits, which raises the volume on criticism from skeptics that it’s gotten too expensive. The S&P 500 is still up nearly 25% for the year so far, on top of last year’s leap of 24.2%.

Markets on Wall Street rose modestly in early trading Thursday as more corporate earnings are released ahead of another inflation update from the U.S. government. Futures for the S&P 500 were up just 0.