DES MOINES, Iowa (Agriculture.com)--After the soybean market fell most of the session, short-covering helped the market finish slightly higher Wednesday.

The Dec. futures corn contract closed 1 3/4 cents lower at $7.56. Nov. soybean futures contract ended 1 cent higher at $15.31. Dec. wheat futures settled 1 cent higher at $8.73 per bushel. The Dec. soyoil futures contract is trading $0.03 higher at $50.72. The Dec. soymeal futures contract settled $2.10 per short ton higher at $465.00.

In the outside markets, the NYMEX crude oil is $3.48 per barrel lower, the dollar is higher and the Dow Jones Industrials are 6 points lower.

Tim Hannagan, Alpari LLC (U.S.) senior grain analyst, says a short-covering rally has hit the soybean market.

"After beans made new two-month lows, with November beans hitting $15.04, we saw a short-covering rally back to $15.33. Beans have slid 90 cents, since Friday, and many traders are now covering ahead of the Thursday weekly export sales report due for release at 7:30 central time," Hannagan says. 

The last several weekly demand reports have shown strong export sales. China is the big player, on the export market, he says. 

Corn was holding a negative price action of  4 to 5 cents lower, but few sellers below $7.50, basis December futures, he says. 

"As the mood is still bullish, after Friday's bullish quarterly stocks report. Overall, weakness prevails as harvest pressure continues this week."