DES MOINES, (Agriculture.com)--Traders rolling positions into new contracts and weaker weekly export sales helped the CME Group corn, soybeans and wheat markets settle mostly lower Thursday.

The March futures corn contract closed 5 cents lower at $7.58. Jan. soybean futures contract settled 1 cent higher at $14.48. March wheat futures closed 5 3/4 cents lower at $8.85 per bushel. The Jan. soyoil futures contract settled $0.26 lower at $50.12. The Jan. soymeal futures contract finished $3.10 per short ton higher at $435.80.

In the outside markets, the NYMEX crude oil is $1.52 per barrel higher, the dollar is lower and the Dow Jones Industrials are 29 points higher.

The market is dealing with conflicting fundamentals, one independent CME Group floor trader, requesting anonymity, says. 

"Export sales were poor today, the U.S. 'fiscal cliff' and the Greek debt bailout overhangs the market, and China continues to engage in talking down the market by reporting their ninth largest grain production this year," one independent CME Group floor trader tells Agriculture.com.

The floor rhetoric includes a threat of Pacific northwest port longshoreman striking (they handle 25% of U.S. grain exports, the floor trader says. "Also, the market is digesting the threat of the Mississippi River closing, South America's crop-weather, the continuation of the U.S. drought affecting the wheat crop, end-of-year selling to beat 2013 taxes, and soybean/corn ratio spreading. Right now, beans are cheap compared to corn," she says.