Credit Suisse analyst Christopher Parkinson upgraded CF Industries to Outperform from Neutral with a $42 price target. In a research note to investors, Parkinson says he has long viewed CF as a best-in-class asset base with a top-tier sales & marketing organization, but has remained on the sidelines, but says he believes the risk/reward now skews favorably to the upside, especially as natural gas is trending below his 1H estimates. He believes investors' focus on North America, high quality, cash generative businesses will lead many to gravitate to the story, unless one really retains a "doomsday" view of coronavirus as it pertains to coarse grain crop planting in the U.S.

CF Industries and JERA , Japan's largest energy company, announced that they have executed a joint development agreement, or JDA, to explore the development of greenfield low-carbon ammonia production capacity at CF Industries' Blue Point Complex in Louisiana. The JDA will guide JERA and CF Industries' evaluation of a joint venture agreement to build an approximately 1.4M metric ton capacity low-carbon ammonia plant. JERA is contemplating a 48% ownership stake in the project as well as an agreement to procure more than 500,000 metric tons of low-carbon ammonia annually to meet demand for low-carbon fuels in Japan. JERA and CF Industries previously had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a potential joint project development and sales and purchase of low-carbon ammonia. JERA and CF Industries aim to reach a final investment decision on the proposed project within a year for commencing production in 2028. JERA intends to replace coal with low-carbon clean ammonia in its existing thermal coal power plants to reduce CO2 emissions. JERA is currently conducting the world's first commercial-scale demonstration test of fuel ammonia substitution at its Hekinan Thermal Power Station.