CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture.com)--The CME Group wheat market closes sharply lower, pulling down corn and soybeans Wednesday. 

The Dec corn futures settled 3 34/ cents lower at $4.62 1/2. The Nov. soybean contract settled 3 1/4 cents lower at $10.48 3/4. The Dec. wheat futures closed 24 1/4 cents lower at $7.11. The Dec. soyoil futures ended 11 points lower at $41.68. The Dec. soymeal futures closed $1.90 lower at $304.80 per short ton.

In the outside markets, the NYMEX crude oil is $0.49 per barrel higher, the dollar is lower, and the Dow Jones Industrials are up 40 points.Tim Hannagan, PFGBest.com senior analyst, says the markets are trading both sides of zero, ahead of the Friday government report.

"The markets are clearly focused on Friday's report. "It's all positioning and posturing, ahead of the Friday crop report. Last night's crop condition report was unchanged on beans and down only 1% in corn. Traders felt it should be lower for both. This would have supported the thinking of a bullish Friday crop report off lower yield and production that traders have. So, this has led to second-guessing on the report Friday and two-sided narrow trade today," he says.