According to CNBC, Apple will report fiscal 2026 third-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, and investors are watching for management's forward guidance on how the company is handling a memory-chip shortage and rising input costs. The article says gross margin will be a key metric, with Apple having guided third-quarter gross margin to 47.5% to 48.5% in April, while analysts at Jefferies expect the profit margin on each iPhone 17 to fall by 4 to 9 percentage points and see gross margin still contracting by 3.5 percentage points even if Apple raises prices 18% to 26% on higher-end iPhone 18 models. Apple stock was trading near record highs, and the company recently became the second U.S. company to top a $5 trillion market cap, following Nvidia.