Macy's (M) is under pressure from activist investor Barington Capital just ahead of its delayed earnings report. The firm is pushing Macy's to reduce capital spending, buy back stock, look for alternatives for its luxury operations, and create a real estate subsidiary.

Barington says it wants the retailer to "make changes to its capital allocation strategy and consider other structural actions to improve shareholder value." Macy's responded, saying, "We remain confident in our [ongoing] Bold New Chapter strategy."

Morningstar senior equity analyst David Swartz joins Morning Brief Co-Hosts Seana Smith and Brad Smith to examine the news.

"It's unclear if, really, Barington has a much of a plan here that Macy's isn't already doing because if you look through the presentation, a lot of the things that Macy's is doing seem to align with what Barington wants. So I'm not exactly sure what they're going for here, except maybe to get some board seats and maybe some influence over the company," Swartz says.

The analyst notes, "There's no indication that Barington is going to launch a hostile takeover or anything like that. As far as I can tell, Barington is still a very small shareholder of Macy's. So it's likely that we'll get some sort of agreement, I think, between the parties in terms of maybe a consulting agreement and board members."

Watch the full interview with Macy's CEO Tony Spring at Yahoo Finance's Invest conference here.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.

This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.