CHICAGO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed lower on Monday amid a broad selloff in agriculture markets, as Argentina's large crop kept world supplies plentiful and weighed on prices, traders said.
CBOT March soft red winter wheat WH26 settled down 8-1/2 cents at $5.20-3/4 per bushel. Earlier in the session, the most-active contract dropped down to $5.19-1/2 a bushel, the lowest since Oct. 31.
K.C. March hard red winter wheat KWH26 ended down 6 cents at $5.12 a bushel and Minneapolis March spring wheat MWEH26 fell 7 cents to finish at $5.68-3/4 a bushel.
Chinese state-owned agribusiness COFCO International was loading the first bulk commercial shipment of Argentine wheat bound for China, the company said.
In Russia, wheat export prices kept going up last week.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on Monday that U.S. wheat export sales of 361,700 metric tons for the week ended November 20 were toward the low end of analysts' expectations. Ahead of backdated export sales data, traders expect the agency to report 300,000 to 750,000 metric tons.
(Reporting by P.J. HuffstutterEditing by Nick Zieminski)
((pj.huffstutter@tr.com; 312-730-2200))