Last week really put the “X” in Xbox. Or, at least, in its workforce.

The Microsoft-owned (MSFT) video game maker’s CEO Asha Sharma cut 1,600 jobs, with 1,600 more reportedly on the way. Sharma also spun off four studios, calling it "the most significant restructure in Xbox history."

Its ultimate goal? To eventually entertain "more than a billion people each day."

With just over 130 million monthly active users currently, and headcount and ambition moving in opposite directions, the math ain’t exactly mathing.

But hey, I guess when you spend all day operating under video game logic, it’s bound to trickle into the real world.

— Brooks & The Street Sheet Team

What: Tobacco stocks are trending up as smoke-free brands mature, while liquor slides into the valuation basement cigarette makers just vacated.

Why: New FDA guidance lets tobacco firms sell next-gen vapes and nicotine pouches while applications are pending, closing a loophole that let illicit imports capture two-thirds of the US vape market, per Jefferies. Spirits get no such lift. US volume has fallen four straight years as GLP-1s, pricier cocktails and a health-conscious Gen Z pull in the same direction.

What Else: Not all vice-makers are created equal. Philip Morris International (PM) trades at 21x earnings, a 70% premium to Altria (MO). That gap opened only after smokefree sales crossed 19% of revenue in 2019. Spirits show the mirror image: Pernod Ricard (PRNDY) trades cheaper than BAT and Altria, Diageo's (DEO) has cratered to 2009 levels, and only Brown-Forman (BF.B) is holding up, at 16x earnings.

Watch: Diageo's new chief unveils a fresh strategy this summer, reportedly with cheaper product lines. Watch whether it reads as a turnaround, or a confession that spirits have become the new tobacco.

What: It’s been a rollercoaster first half of 2026, but equities overall have powered higher, largely on a bet that tech giants’ massive AI capex will soon pay off. But now, Meta (META) is reportedly building a cloud business to rent out excess AI capacity it doesn't need yet, and may never.

eWhy: Meta has built roughly 20 gigawatts of compute with 14 more coming, a footprint Bernstein says already rivals dedicated cloud providers. CEO Mark Zuckerberg called renting out spare capacity "an option" if Meta decides it has overbuilt. Hyperscaler capex is estimated at $168 billion this quarter, up 74% year over year.

What Else: Analysts are taking the development in stride. Jefferies' Brent Thill called it a "strategic value creation option," and KeyBanc's Justin Patterson allowed only that Meta's superintelligence ambitions may have "narrowed." But markets were less generous, as chipmakers like Micron (MU) and South Korea’s SK Hynix whipsawed in the wake of the news.

Watch: Q2 earnings from Google (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta later this month will show whether $168 billion a quarter was a peak or a floor.

What: Michael Saylor built an empire on the idea that Strategy's (MSTR) stock could trade rich enough to keep funding bitcoin purchases. That trick requires a premium, and the premium just vanished.

Why: Strategy's mNAV metric divides enterprise value by bitcoin holdings, and it dropped below 1 last month for the first time. The gauge flatters by design: it counts debt and preferred stock at face value, not the discounted prices where they trade. On June 26, Strategy showed mNAV at 0.99. Using real market prices instead, it was 0.89.

What Else: Strategy owns 4% of all the bitcoin that will ever exist. A 32-bitcoin sale in May and a 3,588-bitcoin sale disclosed this week, worth $216 million, both landed after the board authorized $1.25 billion in bitcoin sales for buybacks and preferred dividends. Strategy also raised its Stretch preferred dividend to 12%, trying to buy back confidence.

Watch: Strategy says its $2.55 billion cash pile buys about 17 months before it has to start selling bitcoin in size.